Liberation
by Ayamesnow
Summary: This is a fanfiction of what could have happened after the movie. Setsuna has been able to defeat many enemies, but now it's time to face his greatest fear: himself. Rated T just in case. I do not own Gundam 00
1. Chapter 1

He was hearing the voice again. He couldn't make out what the voice was saying, but it was filled with such sorrow and fear that it pierced his very soul with unfathomable despair.

He woke up with a start, his body bathed in sweat, his limbs trembling, a headache threatening to appear. He sat up slowly and cradled his pounding head in his hands, trying to figure out the strange dream that had been haunting him for endless nights, but at the same time afraid to do so.

In his dream darkness enveloped him like a cocoon, his body was folded in a fetal position, his limbs as still as if they were made out of stone. It wasn't either cold or warm, no wind stirred around him; it was as if he was suspended in space, the time in pause. And then the voice appeared.

It started like a distant echo, blurred words depicting no sense that he could discern. As the echo kept crawling closer and closer to him, it became a wail, a child's piercing scream, and no matter how hard he tried to open his eyes, he couldn't, nor could he move his hands to cover his ears and drown the wretched sound. The wail surrounded him, suffocating him, filling him with cold terror, as if it was an omen of doom. He couldn't drag in air to his lungs anymore, his strength left him, his tongue was as dried as sandpaper, and he felt death tugging at his heart to rip it out of his chest.

That's when he would normally wake up, heart thundering against his hard chest, pale face bathed in sweat. He waited for his heart to slow down its mad pace before getting out of his bed, and staggered slightly as he stood up, surprised that the dream had taken so much of his strength.

He walked to the bathroom without stumbling, thankfully, and made his way to the shower. He caught his reflection in the mirror: clammy face with black rims under his eyes, his disheveled raven hair clung to his brow with the sweat; he looked as if he was under the effects of some strange disease. Maybe he was.

He stood under the hot spray of water for a long time, his tensed muscles finally relaxing, his cold skin warming up, his face losing that edge it had as he tried to forget the dream, hoping to make it disappear with the water down the drain.

He closed the water knob and wrapped his now warm body in a dry, white blanket. He sat down on the border of the bathing tub, closing his eyes and letting his body cool slowly in the steam now cloaking the bathroom. Relieved that the dream was now a blurry thought in his mind, other thoughts raced to him, filling him with other worries.

It had been five months since the incident with the ELS. Five months from which he remembered only the beginning when he, together with Tieria, found a way to connect with the alien entities. After creating the flower now adorning the space, he went in a coma-like state, stuck inside his own gundam, unable to wake up. His whole body had been consumed by the ELS, Tieria explained to him later, but strangely enough they did not destroy him. They simply covered him like a blanket, pulsating as if they had a heart of their own.

They did not dare take him from them, afraid they would destroy themselves and him as well in the process. They continued to study him closely through double o's cameras with growing concern as his veins turned silver and his hair turned pure white; even his tanned skin paled, and for a while they believed that the ELS were taking his energy and that he would soon die. But it turned out to be the contrary, the ELS were lending him strength, for he kept living even though he hadn't eaten nor drunk anything for about a month.

Another month passed by, with him in that strange vegetative state and them watching him as they felt useless not knowing how to help him. And then suddenly, out of the blue, the ELS disappeared. It happened so quickly that they were first skeptical at their disappearance, but Tiera confirmed that they had actually left leaving no trace. Rejoicing that they could finally help Setsuna, they recovered him, glad that they didn't have to worry about him anymore. But their relief was short lived, for Setsuna didn't wake up the next day nor the following weeks, and the strange silver color still coated his veins and hair, and his skin was as white as a sheet.

They fed him through tubes going to his veins, and continued their endless vigil over his dead-like body. At last, as the weeks kept passing slowly by, his pale tint started darkening, returning his skin to his normal, tanned color, and his hair turned black again, and the silver color left his veins, and there were finally signs of his coming back: a hand twitch, his closed eyes moving, his mumbling in his sleep. When he finally opened his eyes, everyone released a sight it seemed they all had been holding for a long, long time.

Setsuna turned his thoughts back to the present. He looked down at the palms of his hands: they were silver. They were the only parts of his body that hadn't returned to normal even after a month since he had woken up, and no one could explain why, for no one even knew what the ELS had done to him.

He had changed, not only physically but mentally as well. His intuition as an innovator seemed to have been increased considerably,but he was also hunted by a continuous sorrow that chased him like an eternal shadow; a sorrow he didn't know how to chase away.

He stood up and went to look for a change of clothes. He chose a simple pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt, and caught another sight of his reflection. At least he didn't look as sick as before, just faint traces of dark circles rimmed his brown eyes.

He left the room and walked through the hallway to the door that would lead him out of the Ptolemaios. On his way, he passed by a glass window from which he could see the gundams. He stopped for a moment and placed one hand on the glass, his mind thoughtful, his eyes focused on double o. His gundam.

He hadn't use it in such a long time he missed the feeling of being encased by the protection it offered him, missed the connection he felt when he was inside the machine. What would happen if the world didn't need him anymore? What would he do then? He didn't dare voice his worries, as if afraid doing so would make it a reality. After all, he was only good for one thing: fighting.

His eyes finally moved away from the silent machine and resumed his walk down the hallway.

He finally arrived to the door that would lead him to the outside. As soon as he opened it, a salty breeze met his face, while the cries of seagulls reached his ears and the rays of a blinding sun spilled over him. Sumeragi had decided to take a 'well deserved' break from the space and take some time off from their continuous work to enjoy the peace and warmth only a beach could offer them.

"Aren't you hot in those clothes?"

He turned to his right and met the bright blue eyes of a smiling Feldt. The pink-haired girl's smile was slightly teasing, while her eyes looked at him with gentleness.

"Where is everyone?" Setsuna asked, not answering her question. Feldt almost sighed, he was always like that, not answering questions he didn't believe were relevant. Not that he did it on purpose, it was just the way he was.

"They all had some sort of plan for today," she explained "unfortunately, their plans didn't include me, so now I'm stuck here all alone." she tried to sound whiny to tease him, tried to make him smile at least slightly, but his attention was already somewhere else only his mind could wander to. He was looking at the wide sea, his hard face unreadable, his posture straight and impenetrable, his intense brown eyes glued to the horizon. His raven black hair was covered with water droplets, and Feldt thought that she wouldn't mind spending the whole day staring at him.

But the hardness in his eyes slipped for a moment, and she could see an unfathomable pain behind his unyielding expression.

"Luckily you are here," she said suddenly, surprised when the words left her lips. He was pulled from whatever thoughts that had haunted him and turned his intense gaze to her. She quivered slightly, afraid she was going to start stuttering in her nervous state. She gulped and smiled up at him "I need to go to town to buy some clothes," she explained, dropping her now shy eyes to the ground "would you mind coming with me? It's not too far away."

He debated what to say, and the longest minute of her life passed in silence as she waited for his answer. It wasn't that he disliked her, but for the past weeks he had preferred being alone, feeling uncomfortable in the presence of others, especially hers, since he never knew what to say to her.

"Sure, I'll come with you." he finally answered, secretly wondering if he would regret his decision.

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Thank you for stopping by to read this first chapter! I absolutely love Gundam 00, and I loved the movie but didn't really the ending, it was really disappointing for me T.T

I started writing this story so as to figure out what can happen after such an ending. I hope you enjoy it, please don't forget to press the lovely review button. Reviews are very valuable to me :)


	2. Chapter 2

Thank u for your reviews! You guys are awesome:). This chapter was kind of hard to write, I caught an awful cold so maybe some sentences don't make sense (when i have a cold i can't think straight T.T), hopefully most of it does. I hope u enjoy this chapter :), suggestions and advices are always welcome. Oh, btw, someone pointed out that Feldt's eyes are green not blue, so my apologies for that mistake

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Feldt had never planned to ask Setsuna to accompany her, in fact she would have never had the courage to do so. It had happened automatically, he had looked so dejected and lost that her heart went out to him and the words left her lips uncalled for. Now her nerves were getting the better of her as her whole being seemed to be trembling in excitement.

He said yes!

"Oh for heaven's sake Feldt!" she said to herself "it's not like he's going to marry you or something, it's not even a date." But she couldn't help the smile lighting up her face.

The last months had been a total misery. When Setsuna finally woke up, he seemed to be even more closed up than before, reclining in solitude, he refused to talk to anybody unless it was absolutely necessary.

Her smile banished slowly. It pained her to see him like that, she wished she could approach to him and help him open up. It was obvious that there was something inside him that grieved him deeply, and it saddened her that she knew he would never tell her. Would princess Marina be better at reaching out to him? Her heart gave a sudden lurch of jealousy, and she shook her head to shake the bitter feeling away. Whatever had happened between the princess and Setsuna, it wasn't her problem, no matter what her feelings for him were.

But today she was going to have him for herself. Her sweet smile returned.

"What should I wear?" she wondered as she looked at her small closet. She _did_ have a desperate need for new clothes, some of her clothes were so old she didn't even remember when she bought them. She had a pitiful excuse of a closet.

She was about to change her pink shirt and pajama shorts for a white tank top and another pair of shorts, when her eyes fell on a dress she didn't even know she owned. It was a white dress with an open back. How on Earth did such a thing end up in her closet? She had never owned that style of clothing. Just to see how it fitted, she tried it on and turned around to see her reflection. As she caught sight of herself, she realized with a pang that the dress had belonged to Christina Sierra. Feldt looked away from the mirror, her knees suddenly feeling weak. She had forgotten that the lively girl had left it for her, demanding that she wear more fashionable clothes. She had never tried it before.

She sat down heavily on her bed, debating whether or not to take off the dress, feeling a dead weight on her heart at the thought of her fallen friend. As she thought of her, she just knew what Chris would have said to her at that moment: "Just wear the damn thing! You want to sway him off his feet, don't you?" She could even picture her winking her eye at her with a cheeky smile.

She sighed, "All right, Chris," she said softly, smiling sadly at the memory of her "I'll wear it for you." She stood up again to face her reflection again.

Was this too much?

The dress was a bit too short for her taste and she felt self-conscious about the open back. What would Setsuna think?

She decided to wear shorts with it. Just in case. What if there was a lot of wind outside?

She could imagine a disappointed Christina shaking her head at her.

"I know, I'm a coward" She said silently, but refused to take off the shorts.

Taking a deep breath, she left her room before she would change her mind. Setsuna was waiting beside her door, his expression as thoughtful as ever. He hadn't change his dark clothes, but he was now wearing a pair of fingerless gloves that covered his silver palms. His eyes flickered for a moment over her, and she could have sworn his eyebrows rose a millimeter in surprise.

"I'm ready," she said simply, feeling a blush creeping all over her face, trying to ignore the nervousness that was making her tremble inside.

"Let's go, then" Setsuna replied, and started down the hall, Feldt followed him silently. She rubbed her arms as they walked, trying to think of something to say.

"So... do you need to get anything from town?" She finally asked.

"No," was his simple answer.

An awkward silence fell between them. She was starting to wish she hadn't ask him to accompany her when they finally arrived to where they stored the vehicles. Setsuna kept walking towards a fancy black motorcycle.

"Oh, we-we are taking your motorcycle?" Feldt stuttered nervously.

"Yeah, why? Is there a problem?" He turned to her, and realization dawned on his eyes as he glanced at her dress again "Oh, well we can always take Allelujah's car."

"Oh no, it's not that, I'm wearing shorts," she said, blushing again "it's just that- well... I... I don't like... I'm afraid of motorcycles." she finished clumsily.

He stood in silence for a moment as if unsure he had heard her correctly. "What?" he asked confused.

"Never mind," she waved her hand as if she could wave her last words away "let's ride it."

She tried to walk to the machine with dignity, but tripped with her own trembling feet and fell right on top of it.

"Are you ok?" Setsuna asked her worried, quickly approaching to her.

"Yeah," Fedlt said, hiding her red face in her arms. If she would get any more redder, she would explode.

"Good thing the motorcycle didn't fall down, you could have hurt yourself."

"yay lucky me," she said without enthusiasm. He tapped her on her shoulder to give her a hand and she took it, sighing.

"I've never seen you so nervous before,"

_Oh curse you Setsuna! _She thought embarrassed as she stood up. Was that a tiny twinkle of amusement in his eyes? Realizing that she was still holding his hand, she dropped it immediately. He left her to her own thumping heart and went to sit in the front of the motorcycle and put his helmet on.

"Come on, nothing is going to happen, I'm a good driver," he said as he turned it on. The machine roared to life.

_He must think I'm an idiot,_ she thought as she took another helmet. _Way to go Feldt_. She took a few more seconds before sliding behind Setsuna, while her head screamed at her to get away from the machine she viewed as dangerous.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine," Setsuna said. Could he sense her terror? Did he think she was being ridiculous? She wouldn't blame him if he did.

Timidly, she slid her arms around his waist, and her heart gave a flutter.

"I won't let anything happen to you."

He didn't say it in a romantic way, but matter of factly, as if he said it everyday. Maybe he did, in his head, to the rest of the world. Even so, Feldt couldn't help the warmth spreading inside her at his words.

Trees passed quickly by as they moved through a road made of dirt surrounded by a dense forest. Feldt was hugging Setsuna tightly, eyes shut, trying to ignore the growing fear that was making her heart tremble like a bird, while memories kept coming to her mind. She tried to ignore them, wishing she had agreed to take Allelujah's car. Why couldn't she move pass that incidence that had happened so long ago? She hoped Setsuna didn't mind her tight grip.

Unexpectedly, her fear started to dissolve slowly, while the torrent of memories stopped coming to her mind, and she was able to open her eyes to the landscape quickly passing by. Was this part of Setsuna's strange influence as an innovator? He was warm against her, and she laid her head softly on his back, wishing she could somehow stay like that forever, close to the man she wished she could reach.

As they came closer and closer to the town, buildings replaced trees and the road made of dirt became cement. Tourists filled the lively streets, enjoying the weather and chattering happily without a care for the world. Setsuna parked in an almost full parking lot and the rumbling engine became silent. They both slid off the motorcycle and clicked their helmets on the handlebars. They stood there for a moment, Feltd unsure of what to do or say.

"Oh," she said when she realized he was waiting for her to lead the way "I'm not sure where exactly I want to go first, I've never come to this town before."  
she quickly explained embarrassed.

"We can walk around," Setsuna, always so practical, replied. She wanted to smack her brow at the obvious answer. She was acting like a complete idiot. They left the parking lot and joined the tourists walking on the streets.

The day became hotter as they passed stores, bakeries, restaurants and about anything a beach town could offer. Feldt grew more and more reluctant at the idea of entering a store and trying clothes in front of Setsuna. Why did she dare invite him? He was probably bored now, regretting his decision of coming with her. She stole a quick glance at him, sweat beads were running down the sides of his face.

"Aren't you hot? It must be really uncomfortable to be out in this weather with those clothes," she said.

"I'm alright," he answered, in that monotonous and serious voice of his. She would have believed him if she hadn't seen the sweat.

"You can get a heat stroke, you know? You're not immune to everything," she replied, worry apparent in her tone. She quickly looked around until she spotted a men's store. "Come," she said, taking his arm and dragging him toward the store.

Setsuna looked really out of place as he stood between stacks of surfer's clothes, colorful shorts and designer shirts.

"Oh come on! Don't look at me like that, I'll pay for your clothes," Feldt said smiling, "you know, you should really add some color to your wardrobe."

He wondered why would a guy even waste his time for such a trivial matter.

"I thought we were going to look for clothes for you?" he mentioned, and Feldt ignored him completely as she looked around the store. This was much more fun.

So for fun's sake, she took a sleeveless shirt that looked suspiciously Hawaiian. It was red with a big white turtle covering one of the sides. Next she chose a pair of white shorts made of cotton.

"Here, try these," she said.

He took them awkwardly and looked at her as if wondering if she was actually being serious. Feldt sighed and gently pushed him to the changing rooms.

"Come on, it wont kill you to try them," she pushed him into one of the small rooms and closed the door. "You have to show me how they look!" she added.

It took him half a minute to reluctantly change into the ridiculous clothes, and opened the door, sighing.

She blinked several times. She had only seen him wearing the same type of clothes over and over again, and the change of style really did something for his eyes, bringing out the intense brown color. But the most striking thing was he looked so _normal_ it was really strange. Not a gundam meister anymore, not a soldier of celestial being, just a normal guy going out to the beach.

"I'll pay for them," she said, already walking towards the cashier.

"I don't need them," Setsuna replied awkwardly, but she ignored him a second time and kept walking. He sighed again, he had to admit that the change of clothes felt great.

They were out on the streets again, Setsuna carrying a bag with his black clothes while Feldt smiled happily to herself.

"Are you hungry?" she suddenly asked him.

"Are _you_ hungry?" he asked her back.

"It would be nice to have something to eat," she admitted.

At that moment they heard the sound of music and laughter, and as they approached an intersection, they saw that the long street had been closed and a festival filled the road now blooming with life.

"Oh!" Feldt said delighted "Let's go there,"

He was about to ask a monotonous _why_ when she took his arm and pulled him toward the celebration._  
_

"I bet you have never gone to one of these!" she said to him, and her smile was simply so cheerful and her bright green eyes so filled with pleasure that he couldn't help the tiny crack of a smile that enlightened his somber expression.

"I thought you needed to buy some clothes," he said as she pulled him, and she shrugged.

They stopped by one of the stands to buy shrimps on sticks and moved along the numerous stands to see around. They saw dancers, artists and cooks, people selling masks and even a pair attempting to do a magic trick. Setsuna looked at it all not enjoying it personally, but with a satisfaction growing inside of him with each step he took.

This is why he had been fighting, for those children running around with happy smiles, for that mother nursing her child, for that brother carrying her baby sister on his back. They didn't need to know what was to fight a war, the piercing terror that follows you around in the night, the guilt of past mistakes.

He didn't have to be part of their normal lives, he would always live with a burden on his back, live with his own demons, but as long as he could say that it was worth it, he would continue fighting for the future.

Somewhere between all the noise and activities, Setsuna lost the plastic bag carrying his clothes. Feldt argued that they should look for it, but there were so many people now that she had to agree with him that it was pointless.

They finally arrived to the end of the stands, and Feldt decided to stop by a quiet cafe to refreshen and relax. They sat at a small, round table, sipping cold strawberry lemonades Feldt had insisted Setsuna try, and as she sat there with him, in the warm late afternoon, listening to the catchy music surrounding the cafe, she couldn't help to think at how surreal such a normal day seemed for them. It was so strange she wouldn't be surprised if it was all a dream.

"Why are you afraid of motorcycles?" he suddenly asked her, his eyes studying her silently. His gaze did strange things to her insides.

She wrung her hands nervously, not sure how to answer. In Celestial Being, they all stressed the fact that they had to keep their pasts and real identities in secret, even between themselves. Heck, she didn't even know what his real name was.

Such thought saddened her. If they were all friend and had survived so many deadly situations together, why couldn't they trust each other with their pasts? Wasn't her story hers to share or to hide? She decided to simply tell him, thinking it wouldn't do any harm.

"When I was little my parents would sometimes apologize that we couldn't lead a normal life on Earth, but they were always affirmed that it was necessary for the creation of a better world. However, they did send me to Earth occasionally, to experience first hand a little of the world they wanted to save. I would stay in the house of a man who took care of homeless children," she sap her lemonade for a moment before continuing, and a small smile lifted her lips "I enjoyed my time there, and took my 'mission' of learning about Earth very seriously. I was always fascinated by the cars, amazed at how _old_ they seemed compared to the magnificent ships I had seen on space. How could people live happily in a place that seemed so out-of-date? But there weren't such things as motorcycles on space, and I was captivated by them," she stopped again, and stole a quick glance at Setsuna, wondering if he was going to think that her story was absurd. He was looking at her attentively, she lowered her eyes and continued.

"There was a man who lived close by who had one, and I convinced one of the kids to come with me to drive it," she blushed slightly as she remembered the way she had convinced him. He was a kid with a rebellious nature, and he had a crush on her. She had promised him a kiss if he would help her steal the motorcycle for just an hour. Now she wanted to shake her head at her bold promise. As a child she had been as quiet as she was now, but she would have done about anything to get her little hands on a machine. "The kid managed somehow to steal the keys from the owner, and we sneaked into his garage when we knew he wasn't home. We pushed the heavy motorcycle outside, and I sat on the driver's seat all excited, but I started to have doubts as it was way bigger than I had expected, so the boy told me to let him drive it; after all, he was taller than I was. But in my stubborn ambition I ignored him and turned it on, I released the clutch and throttled up. It was faster than I had imagined, too fast, and in my fear I had no idea how to stop, I was heading toward a cliff... I was lucky the cliff wasn't too high." She stopped for a moment again "I know it sounds stupid, ridiculous even, to be afraid of one little accident when we have gone through much more dire situations, but I guess it's because it was my first real experience with the fear of death." She sat quietly for a moment, letting the music fill the silence, and then she asked him softly "I've always wondered about your life, Setsuna."

A calm quiet fell upon them, and she gave him the choice to share something about him. As the silence stretched, she looked shyly up at him, and was struck again at the deep sadness that haunted his beautiful brown eyes. What had been so tragic in his life that he looked so hopeless?

"Let's go," she said quietly, and not knowing how else to reach him, how else to break down that invisible and intimidating barrier between him and the rest of the world, she took his hand in hers, and led him to the outside, toward the shore. Her hand felt small in his, but the warmth emanating from his was reassuring. Her breath caught in her throat when his fingers curled around hers.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you all for your reviews! They really encourage me to keep on writing :). I start school next week so I won't be able to update as much as I would like too :(, but I'll do one chapter per month, if I can I'll do more, but I don't think that will be possible :/. Best wishes for 2013!

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It was starting to get chilly. The sun was sinking toward the horizon, and the ocean was starting to become wild with the pull of a full moon partly hidden by the clouds. Setsuna and Feldt were walking down the shore, hand in hand, both lost in their own thoughts. They were almost alone but for a few families that were already packing and ready to leave. It seemed the festival they had seen before wasn't over, for even from where they were they could hear the faint sound of music. Perhaps that was why the shore was almost empty.

Feldt looked down at how their steps moved in synchrony, then she looked forward, cherishing the feeling of peace and calm that a simple evening walk provided, hearing the seagulls calling from far away and breathing in the sea-breeze; she didn't even care that they didn't know where they were headed.

Did she ever wish she had never taken part in Celestial Being? That was a question she sometimes had, and always avoided. She had lost so much by accepting her position in the Ptolemaios that she sometimes wondered if it was worth all the pain, all the suffering. But as she looked at Setsuna's shadow and hers, she tightened her grip on his hand, and knew that she would have never had it otherwise. She had lost a lot, more than she could have ever thought she could handle, but she had also gained a purpose, and a will to live that could never be put out.

They were approaching a pier, and their steps turned to it simultaneously. They walked across it until its end where they stopped, facing the horizon. She looked up at his eyes, those vivid eyes that now reflected the glorious reds the sun dyed the sky with. His hair and clothes were billowing in the wind softly, and his expression was one of a man who was lost somewhere in a strange land.

"Do you remember... I mean... when you woke up from your trance caused by the ELS, do you remember... how did you feel?" She asked him. More than curious, she wanted to find a way, the right words, to help him open up to her. He looked down at her but didn't reply immediately. His eyes studied her silently. Did he know what was going through her mind? The turmoil of feelings bombarding her at his mere presence?

He looked away, his eyes back to the ocean in front of them.

"Older somehow... and yet stronger," he said simply. She saw it then, a strange twinkle of silver in his eyes, the same silver that coated the palms of his hands, and she was greatly disturbed by it. Did the ELS still live in him?

"... and yet weaker," his voice was so quiet she had barely caught the words.

He looked... vulnerable. Setsuna was quiet, always serious, he could sometimes look sad, but never vulnerable. She blinked several times at the sight of a man who seemed to be a rock, but who was also fragile, so fragile she was afraid he would break at any moment. She wanted to protect him, the way he had always fought to protect the world. But how?

He looked so lost and desolated that she couldn't help what she did next. She gently grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him toward her slowly, and the strange thing was... he didn't resist. He felt as if he were simply letting gravity have its way, and he found himself kissing Feldt.

At first, there was nothing in his mind but the sweet taste of her lips, the pure taste of innocence. But then, behind his closed lids, he saw the darkness that haunted him at night, he heard the distant, faintest echoes of the scream.

He drew back from her abruptly, his eyes still closed, a grimace of pain twisting his features, his hands gripping her shoulders not too gently. He opened his eyes and saw the hurt spreading on Feldt's face. She looked down, and sighed, and the sound of it broke something inside of him, for it carry with it a trace of the hopelessness he could feel in his dreams.

"Setsuna... I-"

He gently place a finger to her lips, silencing her, and allowed himself just a moment, a few seconds, to ignore the bitter feeling running thickly through his veins like poison, and he traced his hand along her soft jawline to the back of her head, where her short hair tickled his fingers. Her pale skin glowed with the last rays of the sun, her eyes were fixed on his, looking at him with wonder. He wondered what it would feel like to give in to that strong feeling radiating from her, and forget everything else. Would it free him? Would it shut out the strange dreams? Her desire to protect him was so sweet he wanted to embrace her. The seconds of freedom he had allowed himself were almost over.

He leaned in to her and gently rested his brow against her own, breathing in her sweet scent.

"I'm sorry Feldt," he whispered, his breath brushing against her skin "I have done things in the past... you shouldn't know."

She frowned, confused, but her thoughts were all in a jumble because of his close proximity.

"Setsuna-"

He suddenly stepped away from her, his eyes changing abruptly, turning into an innovator's gaze. He turned around to face the other side of the pier.

The sky was turning dark rapidly, and a few stars were already twinkling down at them. He could hear the sea raging on both sides of the pier. He saw the shadows approaching.

"What is it?" Feldt asked in a whisper, sudden goosebumps covering her arms. She was suddenly feeling the cold breeze.

"Thieves... murderers," Setsuna's voice was a husky whisper, his tone thick with anger. She could now see the four men approaching them, their bodies were bulky, their faces rough and their clothes dirty, as if they had spent the day in a ditch. They were laughing loudly at them, obviously drunk, but with a dangerous expression on their faces.

Setsuna placed himself in front of Feldt, in a defensive position, gaining another roar of laughter from them. His mouth tighten into a hard line.

"You're going to fight us, boy?" the biggest one of them said with a sneer "come on at me then, I'm all yours," he taunted.

They stopped suddenly, puzzled by the strange colors illuminating the young man's eyes. Was that even normal?

They were so perplexed by this that they didn't even see him moving. Feldt's eyes widened at the speed in which he moved. He was a blur in her eyes. Had he always been that fast? He was striking them down without mercy, his mind calculating, his moves swift and automatic. One of them took out a knife and started swinging it blindly. He sneered when he felt it piercing flesh and cursed when he felt his body being hauled into the raging sea. Suddenly, the sound of a whistle pierced the salty air.

"Stop!" A man's strong voice shouted "This is the police! Stop where you are!"

One of the men took the distraction as an opportunity to inflict some harm. He turned around and was about to run towards Feldt when he was pushed toward the open sea by setsuna who ran at him head on. They both fell into the unwelcome waters.

"Setsuna!" Feldt screamed, while the two last men took the opportunity to escape.

Feldt ran down the pier, her eyes on the sea, frantically looking for Setsuna among the dark waves. She couldn't see him anywhere. "Setsuna!"

"There!" the policeman shouted, pointing out. They could see Setsuna swimming toward the shore with strong, determined strokes, but even so it was a struggle; the ocean was so wild now that it took him quite a while to finally drag himself to the shore. Feldt ran to him, and together with the policeman they helped him pull himself up and away from the waves.

Setsuna dropped to his knees with Feldt right beside him. He needed a moment to catch his breadth.

"Are you all right?" the policeman asked him, kneeling on his other side.

Setsuna looked up at him and immediately saw the tall man's eyes widening. His intuition picked up and he could even feel the wheels on the stranger's brains turning.

He knew he was an innovator, and somehow that idea filled him with a strange and dangerous ambition. Apprehension slithered down his spine and dread washed over him. A spike of adrenaline pumped into his system making him want to jump away from him, but caution held him in place.

"You're hurt," Feldt said suddenly, looking at his right shoulder, where blood poured from a deep gash. "We have to stop the bleeding," she ripped part of the border of her dress, not realizing that both men's gaze were locked in each other, and that they were sitting rigidly still. "Setsuna, lift your arm gently, I'm going to try to bandage it."

"You can come to the station where we have a first aid kit," the man said, his kind voice not reflecting the seriousness in his eyes, the purposeful look in his expression.

"We have _friends_ close by, they can help us out," Setsuna replied. His forced calm spoke volumes. Feldt looked at him surprised and then turned her gaze to the policeman. His expression had hardened, and a shiver raced down her arms, sensing a faint trace of danger she had missed before.

The policeman spoke slowly, as if measuring every word. "I'm afraid you will have to come with me, young man."

"Why?" Feldt asked suspiciously, her mind frantically trying to look for explanations for the strange turn of events.

"There is a man we have been trying to locate for a long, long time," the policeman explained, his cold eyes never leaving Setsuna's "this man is a criminal, and you look suspiciously like him. No matter what you say, you still are required by law to come with me; we will do some research at the station and if you are not who I think you are, you will be free to go tomorrow morning."

_Bastard_, Setsuna thought. They both knew he was lying.

"Setsuna is no criminal," Feldt replied indignantly "you should really be looking for those men who attacked us."

The man completely ignored her, his stare still fixed on Setsuna, as if he knew he would move at any moment and get away from his grasp. "Don't make me use force," he said, his hand making a move toward his belt, where he kept his gun, "come with me quietly now."

_Like hell I will,_ Setsuna thought, and with a speed that surprised even himself, he punched him hard on his stomach. He quickly stood up and grabbed Feldt's hand and they dashed away from him. Setsuna had to really pull Feldt along as they ran, he was too fast for her. _What's going on?_ She wondered, confused, hoping she wouldn't trip with her own feet and fall.

"Can you contact them?" Setsuna suddenly asked, his voice not betraying the panic he felt. What was it about the man that made him feel so uneasy?

"What?" Feldt asked him, already out of breath.

"Can you contact those in the Ptolemaios?"

"Y-yes," she said. She had a small device in her pocket that could alert Celestial Being that they were in danger. She reached for it, praying she wouldn't drop it as they ran.

The policeman cursed as he tried to get air back to his lungs. He could see the pair already far in the distance, but he had waited way to long, and worked too hard, to let them go that easily. He reached for his phone and dialed the station's number, glad of the power he could abuse as an officer of the law. He rubbed his stomach, where the boy had punched him, while he waited impatiently for someone to pick up. Even if he had been expecting such reaction, the speed at which he had moved took him completely by surprise.

What was taking so long for someone to answer the damn phone?

Even in his state of frustration, an ugly sneer distorted the expression of kindness he usually wore. This time, he had found something big.


	4. Chapter 4

I finally found the time to update! :D, school is killing me :(. Anyways, this chapter was a bit rushed, so if something doesn't makes sense, please let me know. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please review :)

* * *

"Setsuna!"

Hi heart was going to rupture through his chest, that's how fast and strong it was beating. His face was covered in cold sweat, his limbs were quivering.

He was vaguely aware of his surroundings. All that consumed his thoughts was the panic, the dread. He had to keep running. In normal circumstances, he would have thought that what he was feeling was unreasonable fear, but it was not just him feeling it, something inside him was also trembling, something cold and strange, something _foreign_.

The ELS?

"Setsuna!"

He was jerked from his thoughts by Feldt's voice and he looked at her. Had she been calling him for long? He was so consumed by worry that he hadn't really paid attention to her condition. She was breathing hard, looking exhausted and ready to fall on her feet as she tried hard to keep up with him. He slowed down his mad pace, feeling guilty. This should have never happened.

"I think... we can stop now... I don't... hear him following us... anymore..." she said between breaths.

She kept trotting alongside him, waiting for his answer. She was not looking at him, not wanting him to know how tired she was, that she could collapse at any moment. She felt as if her lungs were on fire, and every step she took sent a sharp pain across her body.

Setsuna looked back. He knew that soon they would have more pursuers, and running would not help them anymore. What was taking Allelujah and Lyle so long? Ahead he could see several boats resting on the shore.

"We're almost there, Feldt. Do you see those boats over there? You can hide between them."

"What about... you...?" she asked as she tried to catch her breath.

"If we both hide they'll know where to look," he replied matter-of-factly. He didn't add that he knew that they wanted him.

Feldt heard rumbling sounds in the distance behind them. She looked over her shoulder and saw the five motorcyclists rapidly catching up to them._ You've got to be kidding me,_ she thought frustrated. _What _was going on? She looked ahead to the boats they were heading to. _Just until there, Feldt,_ she said to herself, _you can do this, you can keep running, don't collapse._ She was starting to feel dizzy, and every breath she took was now a raspy sound that made her cough.

The pursuers started shooting.

"Setsuna!" Fedlt nearly screamed, her confusion and exhaustion sending her mind in a roll of terror.

"Go to the boats Feldt! Quickly!" Setsuna yelled. He pushed her ahead, and turned around to face their pursuers. And then he heard it. He heard it swishing by before striking her skin. His eyes widened, the blood draining from his face, as he heard the soft gasp of surprise leaving her dry lips, as he felt the spark of pain traveling through her body. He looked over his shoulder, his senses suddenly slowing down, and saw in disbelief her body collapsing on the hard sand.

"Feldt!" He cried out, his mind been pulled into a million directions at once. He found himself at her side, his hands shaking. Never before had he felt so vulnerable, or such anger rising inside of him, not even when he had to face Ali Al-Saachez again. She was clutching her left side painfully, her face distorted in a grimace.

"Setsuna," her frail voice tugged at his heart. She looked afraid, her eyes gazing at his as if looking for reassurance. "What's going on?" her voice was a torturing whisper.

He gently moved her hand away to study the damage. There was blood, but it wasn't as big a wound as he had feared. The strange, elongated bullet hadn't penetrated her skin completely, instead, it hang on the surface like an arrow. He realized then what it was, some sort of an anesthetic weapon. He gently pulled it out, her gasp of pain ripping at his insides.

He tore part of his shirt, the way she had done with her dress, and put pressure on the wound. "Don't worry, Feldt, you'll be all right." he said quietly.

It seemed fights would always follow him. Life would always chase him with violence.

He ignored the imminent approach of the motorcycles, and focused on the girl in his arms. She wasn't going to die, that much was obvious, but the fact that she took the strange weapon that had been meant for him wasn't right. She was holding his hand, her expression now trying to mask the pain she felt, trying to put on a brave and strong front and chase away her fear.

"They are almost here, Felt. Allelujah will soon be here for you," he said brusquely.

"What about... you...?" she asked. Did she know that it was him they wanted? He was stroking her hair, trying to give her what little support he could. Her eyes were studying him, as if trying to absorb every detail of his face before unconsciousness took hold of her mind.

"When I was a child I used to think that the petals of dandelions were the whispers of souls," he said suddenly. He didn't know why he was telling her this, now of all times, only that it was important that she knew. "One day I decided to follow them, wondering where they would lead me. I didn't know what death was at that time."

Her eyes were starting to lose their focus, and he could see how hard she was trying to stay awake.

"It was summer," he continued quickly "and as I followed them, I arrived at an old, forgotten cemetery. It was covered with dandelions, and when the wind blew, they were carried off to the sky like souls finally been freed."

The motorcycles were already surrounding them, the threatening roars of the machines silencing all other noise. The policeman slid off from behind one of the drivers, secretly sneering at the steady defiant stare the younger man was sending out at them all.

"Don't try anything stupid," he warned, looking down at him "you know I'm serious now," his eyes fell on Feldt, and Setsuna would have confronted him if it wasn't for the gun he carried proudly in his hand.

"Where will you be taking me?" He asked him, his voice tight, trying to hold in the anger that wanted to burst forth from every cell in his body.

"To the station, of course," the policeman replied, matter-of-factly "that's what I told you before."

Setsuna looked at the other policemen: they looked young, and with an air of pride at helping catching a 'villain'. None of them had a clue of what was really going on. Only one stole a glance at Feldt with concern.

"Now, stand up slowly and put your hands on your head where I can see them," the policeman said with an air of authority.

Setsuna looked down at Fedlt, she was long gone into unconsciousness.

"Don't try anything stupid," he repeated "we will take good care of her."

He knew that much. He couldn't feel any ill intentions from him directed at her.

"I'm sorry Feldt," he whispered tenderly to her ear and carefully laid her on the sand. He stood up slowly and raised his hands to his head.

"That's a good man," the policeman continued, having the nerve to smirk at him as if the whole thing was a joke. He walked toward him and took out a strange gun likely to contain an anesthetic bullet like the one Feldt had been shot with. "We don't want you to try anything along the way, do we?"

He raised the gun toward his shoulder, still smirking, but the worst part was that he could do nothing about it. Nothing at all.

The man pressed the trigger and soon darkness filled his mind.

* * *

She could hear Setsuna's voice, but she couldn't see him. She was running through a forest, _floating_ would be a better word to describe it, for she couldn't feel nor see her own body. What was he telling her? His voice floated through her mind like sweet music, and she couldn't discern the words. The world around her was bright, too bright, as if there were two suns instead of just one, and the trees that she passed were not ones she was familiar with. Where the strange vegetation ended, a wide clearance laid ahead, covered with white flowers like the one she had once given him. There, a small boy played between them, a boy with dark skin and raven hair, she felt her heart quicken, thought she recognized him, but when he turned around and met her eyes, she could only see the stains of blood on his shirt. A strong wind blew, and parts of him dissolved like flower petals until he was gone, and in his place laid a tomb.

Feldt opened her eyes slowly, and blinked against the light. At first all she saw was a blurry mess, but as she focused her eyes harder she realized she was in the infirmary of the Ptolemaios. She had a dreadful headache and her throat was parched as if she hadn't drunk for days. Her body felt heavy, and slow, as if she had suddenly forgotten how to move it.

"Feldt! You're awake," she turned to her left to find a relieved Marie sitting down beside her.

Feldt tried to sit up, and immediately felt a sharp pain coming from her left side. Confused, she lifted her dress partially and found a bandaged wound just below her ribs.

"When we couldn't find you, the whole Ptolemaios went into an uproar. We didn't know what had happened to you; we found the tracker devise you called us with near a shore."

Feldt cradled her head in her hands, she felt as if her head was going to explode. She tried to recall the events of the evening, but the irritating headache wasn't letting her.

"We finally learned that you were placed in a hospital, a policeman told us."

_A policeman. _Feldt's eyes widened as fragments of the evening returned to her mind. She could see the strange men approaching them, and Setsuna falling into the sea, she remembered the man claiming to be an officer of the law.

"We finally found you and brought you back to the Ptolemaios, but we still don't know the whereabouts of Setsuna."

_Setsuna._ She immediately tried to stand up, but her legs felt like spaghetti strands and she fell to the floor.

"Feldt, please calm down," Marie was immediately by her side, "Allelujah and Lyle are out looking for him, we will find him." She gently placed her hand on her shoulder, worried by the younger woman's agitated state. "Tell me what happened."

"There was a man," she stuttered "a man who claimed to be a policeman, he wanted to take Setsuna to the station for some reason... said that he looked like a criminal or something, but there was something... not right about him. He... he chased us," the whole scene was playing again in her mind, she could feel the exhaustion she had felt, how her muscles had screamed and her lungs burned for air, how Setsuna had looked... frightened. "I think they shot me with some sort of anesthetic or something."

"Yes, we found a very strong form of anesthetic in a sample of your blood," Marie said.

At that moment the door of the infirmary opened and in came Sumeragi, but before she could speak, Feldt interrupted her, struggling to stand up.

"We have to go to the police station," She pleaded urgently. She tried to ignore the wretched feeling that they were already too late.

* * *

He was in a desolated place. A bitter wind blew against him, gnawing at his bones. Was this a dream? The world around him was white, as if he was surrounded by snow, but he couldn't see a single snowflake.

If this was a dream, then the scream would appear at any moment. His limbs were trembling in the cold, but try as he might, he could not move from where he was, it was almost as if he was a tree, rooted in place, with no will of its own. He waited for the scream, but it never came.

Suddenly, a small boy appeared before him, and it took him a moment to realize that it was a younger version of himself, except that his messy hair was silver and his skin almost as white as the world surrounding them. He was looking at him alarmed, waving his hands and trying to tell him something, but he couldn't hear his voice. It was a muted dream.

Setsuna felt frustrated. He felt as if he was supposed to do something but didn't know what. Finally, mustering all the will he could find inside of himself, he used all of his strength to take a single step toward the boy, and it was as if a fabric had been ripped between them, and he could suddenly hear him, his voice echoing in his mind:

_"Wake up Setsuna!"_

The world around him dissipated as a black void sucked it out. Real sounds came to his ears as his consciousness returned. Beeping sounds, quiet voices, pages being turned... He opened his eyes slowly, feeling disoriented. His mind felt strangely heavy and slow.

For a moment he thought he was back in the dream, for the world around him was still white, but as his eyes got used to the light slowly, he started making out the shapes surrounding him. His slow reaction should have worried him, but for now all he could do was to take one thought at a time.

Where was he? What had happened?

There were machines around him, strange machines that beeped and made screeching sounds that hurt his ears. There were people behind the machines, making adjustment or arguing about some small detail. He tried to remember what had happened, but it was frustratingly difficult to gather his memories and put them in order. The only thing he knew for sure was that Feldt had been part of the picture, but why she had been with him or what had happened was still a blurry mess in his mind.

"You're awake,"

Setsuna turned his head slowly to the right, where a heart monitor added its beeps to the clamor of the rest of the machines. He suddenly realized that he was trapped to what it looked like to be a hospital bed, with cables all over his body.

"This could be troublesome," the man that was standing beside the heart monitor looked familiar, but he couldn't place him from where. He could only relate him to a very faint trace of dread he felt, but his worry seemed like a faraway whisper that didn't quite grip his mind as it usually did.

"Esmerie!" he called out and a girl rushed to Setsuna's other side "Give him some more anesthetic, and be quick about it."

Setsuna turned toward her. She was small in stature, her brown long hair was braided to her back and round glasses rimmed nervous green eyes. When their eyes met, she quickly looked away and grabbed a syringe from a metal tray near her; she then sat beside him and grabbed his arm. Her small, trembling hands were cold. As she prepared herself to give him the injection, he was swamped by a wave of her emotions. They had to be strong, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to grasp them in the state he was.

For some reason, she felt afraid. She didn't like the machines, and she felt ashamed of what was going on in the room. His eyes on her made her nervous, and she felt embarrassed of being there holding his arm.

When she inserted the needled into his vein, the cold liquid traveling up his arm startled him, making him wince. Suddenly, she locked her eyes with his, her gaze studying him silently, not betraying what she truly felt. But with her green eyes gazing quietly at him, the wave of her feelings washed over him, and as darkness took hold of his mind, he knew exactly what she wanted so desperately to tell him.

She was asking for his forgiveness.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5! I hope you enjoy, thank you so much for the reviews :D

* * *

Her pale skin glowed red in the light of the fire. She stood where she was, silently, as still as a statue. She seemed to have forgotten how to think. In the harsh glare of the inferno, her eyes looked solemn, old even.

There was a black column of smoke filling the sky like a great snake, it was billowing toward her, threatening her, shadowing her small frame, and suddenly she opened her mouth, as though she had remembered how to breath, and coughed as the bitter taste of smoke filled her mouth and squeezed her throat. She felt like she was gagging.

"Are you all right Fedlt?"

Someone was talking to her, but she wasn't listening. All that filled her ears was the crackling of the fire, the murmurs of the crowd, the grunting of the firemen as they tried to fight a fire that didn't want to be put out. She thought she heard the swaying of the waves, but that might have been her imagination, as the ocean was no way near her. Unknown tears burned in her eyes, then spilled down her cheeks. She thought about fate, about how it seemed to always be taking her loved ones from her.

A sudden gust of wind dragged the cinders from the ground and flung them to her face, like a slap.

The crowd around her was staring at the collapsing building, muttering, gasping, pointing at it. They were mostly tourist, curious about the unexpected tragedy and secretly exited. She cursed them all.

"It was an explosion," someone kept saying "I heard an explosion. Like a bomb."

Feldt shut her eyes, trying to fight the images coming to her mind at his comment. Blood and flying limbs.

The crowd started clapping suddenly, yelling out encouragements, and she opened her eyes. A fireman had been able to rescue a young policeman, and was helping him to walk toward the nearest ambulance.

Her feet started moving of their own accord.

She found herself in front of the coughing young man, shaking him, words flying from her mouth unchecked. She didn't realize what she was doing; her own body seemed foreign to her. Desperation clouded her mind.

"Where is he?!" She could hear herself, near hysteria, but she didn't care. "Where is he?!"

Strong hands yanked her away from the man who collapsed on the ground. She struggled against the stranger grabbing her, but his large hands were gripping her shoulders like a dog's furious bite. He was taking her further and further away from the scene, and she struggled harder, screaming at the top of her lungs, panic filling her, her legs kicking at the air miserably. She was suddenly shoved into someone else's arms.

"Keep her away from the scene or we'll have to shackle her," a deep voice warned.

She was still struggling, trying to break free from the new stranger's strong hold. She tried punching him, but he simply held her hands at bay with incredible force.

"Feldt, please calm down." Allelujah's kind but firm voice said against her ear, and she was able to stop kicking and punching. Her shoulders suddenly slumped, her whole body sagged, seeming to have exhausted all of its energy. She fell on her knees, Allelujah sat beside her.

"Where is he, Allelujah?" She whispered wretchedly.

"We don't even know if he was in the building, Fedlt."

"You know he was," she replied stubbornly "the other man told us."

"Even if he was," Allelujah said, his voice patient "he would have been smart enough to get out. You know Setsuna, Feldt, nothing surprises him."

The words sank slowly in her mind, slowly dissipating her fear and desperation. He was right, nothing could go past Setsuna's intuition.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly "I shouldn't have freaked out like that... it's just that..."

He gently put his hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, Feldt, I understand. We _will_ find him."

She released a heavy sigh.

The first rays of the morning sun tried to break through the thick cloud of smoke up in the sky, but its miserable attempt only added to the grayness of the day and the gloominess clouding the world around her. Allelujah and Lyle had been looking for Setsuna through the entire night, but there had been no trace of him, and the people who remembered seen him with Feldt hadn't seen him since. When Fedlt had finally woken up, the three of them made their way to the police station, but it had seemed an impossible and long process for a thick crowd was out on the streets for some sort of musical event. And then they saw it, as they tried to get through the celebrating people, the music and the laughter getting on Feldt's nerve, they saw the column of smoke growing in the sky, and rumors spread like fire that the police station had exploded.

And now there she was, sitting on the ground with her mind clouded with doubts and fear, with a building collapsing behind her. Feldt pulled her legs to her chest and hid her face in her arms.

"Allelujah," Lyle suddenly called softly, his voice surprising Fedlt. She hadn't heard him coming. Allelujah looked up at him, and in his gaze he could see that there was something terribly wrong.

"Wait here, Feldt," he said to her, trying not to sound worried, and left her as he followed Lyle back to the fire that was finally under control.

"What's happening?" Allelujah asked.

Lyle remained silent for a moment as they walked, and then he sighed. "They found two bodies inside," he said quietly, as if trying not to think too much of what his words implied, "completely burned, which makes it almost impossible to identify them."

It was Allelujah's turn to remain quiet. "It can't be him" he finally said, more to convince himself than to express his opinion. "You know it can't. Setsuna is not an ordinary human, he would have known how to escape. Heck, I bet he even knew an explosion was going to happen!"

"I know," Lyle replied. But fear and uncertainty still settled between them like a fog, and neither of them dared to express their worry. Lyle led the way to two stretches where two bodies had been covered by a gray sheet, with a firefighter standing in front of them like a guard. Lyle had spoken with him earlier, explaining their situation. He nodded to him and the man let them approach the bodies.

"I'm sorry," the firefighter said quietly "they were found trapped in the basement, one of them was inside a cell".

"What are you apologizing for?" Allelujah asked him angrily "It can't be him, it can't be Setsuna".

"Of course," the man replied with masked pity, and left them alone to study the bodies.

"It's not him," Allelujah repeated stubbornly to Lyle.

"I know, but we better check these guys to see who they were," Lyle replied and uncovered both bodies.

Repulsion turned Allelujah's stomach and he had to shut his eyes to be able to control himself. The bodies were disfigured, with grotesque expressions on their dark faces that made them impossible to identify. One of them had his jaw completely open, as if he had been screaming when he died.

"Now what?" He asked Lyle, unable to set eyes on the bodies again. He refused to think of the slight possibility that one of them could be their colleague.

"Cover me, will you? Make sure no one is looking this way." Lyle replied softly as he knelt down beside the bodies. Allelujah looked over his shoulder, the fireman with whom they had spoken with was talking with a reporter. No one seemed to be paying attention to them.

"What are you doing?" Allelujah asked surprised when he saw Lyle taking out a pocketknife.

"Tieria said he needed DNA samples to confirm the identities of the bodies, but their hair is all gone... so I'll just cut bits of their nails," he started clipping, his face hiding the repulsion he felt. He then took a small plastic bag from his pocket and put the bits of nail inside.

"None of them is Setsuna, nor the man who took him."

Both men jumped in surprise. Allelujah hadn't even heard when Feldt had approached them. He looked at her carefully, afraid she would start overreacting again; but her expression was solemn, her serious eyes showed no panic, or the crazy frenzy they had shown before.

"How do you know?" Lyle asked her simply. He too was studying her carefully, as if expecting her to jump at the bodies at any moment.

"The man was wearing a silver bracelet. I remember because when we pull Setsuna away from the shore, I saw it as he grabbed him by the shoulder." She explained.

"So how do we know none of them is Setsuna?"

She remained silent, her steady stare glaring at them as if daring them to tell her he was dead.

"I guess if he wanted to capture Setsuna, he wouldn't have left him behind." Lyle answered his own question calmly.

"So the policeman was the one who set the bomb?" Allelujah asked.

"He could have done it, but nothing is completely clear yet," he stood up, putting his pocketknife back where it belonged. "We will have to set up interviews with the other policemen, and find out everything we can about the man. Did he ever mention a name?" He asked Feldt. She was staring at the bodies at her feet, her expression impossible to decipher. She looked away from the corpses to Lyle, and he was taken aback by her eyes. Those green eyes that were normally quiet and even shy, now looked at him with a deadly seriousness that would have fitted Setsuna's expression. It was as if a storm was brewing inside of her, and he wondered when it would lash out of her.

"No," she answered, her voice tight, as though she was blaming herself for that lack of essential information.

Silence fell on the three of them like a heavy cloak. Feldt looked at the fallen building behind them, her throat tight, uncertainty feeling like a beast that was prowling near her, waiting for the right moment to jump on her and rip her heart right out of her chest.

"We will find him. We will find the man who took him," Allelujah suddenly said, his voice bringing her hope, "and get to the bottom of this mess."

* * *

The world was bright, and weightless. Shapeless figures floated around him, or perhaps it was him the one floating, he felt as light as the wind. There was no smell, and no sound, only strange lights surrounded him, playing under him as though they were looking for a shadow that did not exist, for he had no body.

He was the wind. And then he was water. Nothing existed but an eternal blue vastness that went on and on before him. He felt dense and slow, and he relinquished the feeling, for it was as though time did not exist. And without time, there was no worry.

But without time, he felt no need for living. He stopped wandering in the strange blue vastness and remained rooted in the sand, like a plant that did not know it was supposed to grow.

Just then the strangest sensation traveled through him, as though needles were piercing his skin. With the pain came the realization that he had a body, and that he was not rooted in place, but drowning in the sea. He tried to reach the surface just mere meters above him, but no matter how hard he tried, he didn't seem to go near it. As he swallowed water and his lungs burst from the exertion, the scream came, the one that always came in his dreams, louder than ever before, but he did not realized that it was him screaming.

Did he die? He was covered in darkness, and once again he felt bodiless. But he knew he belonged in a world where time existed. He had a _present_, and a _past_, and as if to prove it, a memory came to his mind uncalled for. He tried to stop it, but it was like trying to stop the wind with his bare hands, and the memory came unbound.

How old was he? Six? Seven? He was lying on a dusty mat, his throat parched, his head dizzy, he hadn't drunk anything since the day before. He looked across the room, where a woman laid on a similar mat, sleeping. He worried about her. Two days earlier, when his thirst had been at its worst, she had given him the last water bag, that was under half full, telling him that she wasn't thirsty. But now he suspected she had lied. He looked at the stone ceiling, and started counting the grooves on the stones, a game he played sometimes to make time pass. He counted until twenty-three, and could no longer concentrate on numbers. He closed his eyes, hoping he could doze off and forget his thirst.

Suddenly the door opened, creaking all the way, and a man appeared, his dark hair disheveled, his kind eyes looking at him with a gentle smile. Soran's face brightened considerably, he hadn't seen his father since he had left to look for provisions six days ago. But he did not stand up to meet him, even though he wanted to wrap his small arms around his thin frame. His body felt too heavy for him to lift.

"I am smooth, and yet I can destroy cities," his father said as he put a large bag on the floor, lifting dust as he dropped it. "I can weigh a ton, and yet I can be as small as your fingertip. I have visited the skies above and the Earth below. I am known by all. What am I?"

Soran did not want to think. His head hurt too much to be able to focus. But he wanted to make his father proud, and guessing his riddles was one way he could do it. So with a grunt he sat up, frowning as he thought hard. He wished he could forget his thirst so he could think clearer... And with that thought came the answer.

"Water," he answered, his small proud smile cracking his dried lips. His eyes widened as his father rummaged the large bag and took out a smaller bag made of leather. He could hear liquid swishing inside it. "Water!" The little boy exclaimed excitedly, and then found the strength to stand up and wrap his small arms around the laughing man.

That had happened weeks before it all started. Before he met the man who changed his life forever.


	6. Chapter 6

I apologize for this late update, I've had too many papers and exams from school -.-, but here's chapter 6, finally!It was really really hard to write, and I hope it makes sense. Anyways, thank you for all your reviews!

* * *

When she woke up she thought that the light shining against her eyelids was part of a dream, since she hadn't felt such sensation since... well, she couldn't even remember since when.

She lived in a facility embedded in an island. Not the type of island where people spent their holidays, but an island where waves crashed against treacherous cliffs and where the sun was almost nonexistent. Where the wind blew strong and mercilessly over freezing cold waters, and the vegetation was sparse except for the thick line of trees that hid the facility. It was the type of island where prisons where built. And for her, the facility _was_ a prison.

So when she woke up to sunlight, warm and bright, she thought her own body was lying to her.

Just in case it was a dream, she lay in her bed for a long time, refusing to open her eyes to try to enjoy the warmth that tickled her face, thinking it would disappear at any moment. But as time stretched by, she dared to open her eyes and squinted at the brightness painting her room in brilliant shades of gold. She pinched the skin of her hand until it hurt

This was no dream.

There _was_ light. Real sunbeams had woken her up for the first time in months, maybe even years. She sat up immediately, unbelieving, as she gazed how her pale feet glowed with the sunlight. She stood up and went to the window. Amazed, she stared at the pillars of light finally breaking through the gray cloud stretching over the sky. Slowly, she slid open the window, and released a sigh of contentment when a warm sea breeze made its way into her room and played with her long, brown locks of hair.

In a moment of pure childish nonsense inappropriate for her age, she climbed out of the window and ran through the line of trees. For the first she didn't care that there were people in the facility who could be watching her, that her father would rebuke her, that her life was a miserable joke. The only thing she cared about was that there was sunlight, and warmth, and a gentle breeze that didn't tear off her skin. She finally broke through the line of trees, sweat running down her neck, the soles of her bare feet stinging against the rough ground, but she didn't care. The sun filled with wonder, and warmth and life. She arrived to the cliff, where the waves were tame and merely kissed the sharp rocks in greeting.

Today she turned eighteen. But this was no place where they celebrated birthdays, and anyways there was nothing to celebrate. At least the sun seemed to have pitied her enough to have decided to finally show up. She stood there, at the top of the cliff, looking at the horizon and at the bright blue sky, letting the breeze embraced her, daring herself to dream.

She closed her eyes and imagined she was back in the city, where she used to live, where the sun was a constant presence instead of a rarity. She remembered her mom, and the faces of her childhood friends also came back to her mind. She wished she could go back to the time when she didn't know how corruption could turn a man into a demon, when she was naïve enough to think that the world was perfect and good, when her life was peaceful and the rules easy to follow. When she didn't know what exactly her father was doing to those _kids_. Sometimes, it was better not to know, and live with eyes closed.

She sat down on the rough ground. Hugging her thin knees tightly, she stared at the body of dark water in front of her that seemed to stretch forever, moving in unison to the very ends of the Earth. There were no seagulls crying to the wind, no animals hiding from her presence, not even ants stinging her skin. She was alone.

She felt tears filling her eyes, felt the small warmness of contentment slipping away from her. Loneliness was creeping into her heart like a quiet shadow; a shadow that always woke up at the right time to ruin her most peaceful moments. She tried to ignore the cold, unforgiving feeling, but the sunlight couldn't reach her innermost being, and loneliness was something that could always crush her soul.

Because today, when the world finally surrounded her with a blanket of light, today she couldn't escape _his_ voice, and _his_ face appeared in her mind even though she was trying hard to think of better times. The effect of the sun on her faded away, like the effect of alcohol after a long night of drinking, and desolation was now holding her heart with a grip of iron. Suddenly, she couldn't stand the sun shining on her; she wanted darkness to cover her, to hide her from her circumstances.

But she couldn't control creation. She couldn't blow the sun away like the flame of a candle, she could only let it spread its warmth across her body shaking with tears.

What was wrong with her? Normally she was good at controlling her emotions, at hiding them even from herself. But today her emotions seemed to be the ones ruling her, as if they had suddenly decided to release her buried secrets. And then she knew why.

The boy had reminded her of _him_, the boy whose skin was tanned and whose hair was darker than coal. Whose eyes had uncovered her shame and taken away the blanket that hid her emotions. Oh she knew. She knew he had grasped the very essence of her being; even the smallest of her emotions hadn't been able to scurry away from his gaze. With a single glance, he had made her feel completely naked. And for a moment she hated him, even though she knew that, truly, she only hated herself. Because when he gave her the strange glance of an innovator, it was as if she had seen _him_, and guilt had spread through her like wild fire.

"Marcus," she whispered against her knees, quietly, as if afraid of the consequences of remembering _him_. After a long time without hearing his name, it sounded strange to her ears. She stood up slowly and looked again at the horizon. "Marcus," she said again, stronger this time, wishing the wind could carry the words to him. But she knew that it was simply impossible.

Because she had kill him. After what she had done, she knew he _had_ to be dead. She thought she had been able to help him, that she was different from her father, until she realized the consequences of her actions.

Her fists clenched angrily. Why did her father had to drag her in the nightmare he was creating? Why did she have to be trapped in an island with no way out?

She had not always thought as she did now. There was a time when she had believed her father was a hero, when the Human Reform League had thought of people like him as heroes. Until Celestial Being made its appearance and turned their world upside down, and she realized the truth about the development of Super Soldiers. Because that was what her father used to do: take children and transform them into advanced war machines, change their brain to such extremes where they did not have a will of their own anymore.

But some people never changed. Because even after the destruction of the Research Institute, there were still some who had no interest in respecting human lives. The building where she lived now was proof of that. The facility that kidnapped people and treated them as experiments in the name of progress. The facility with no name, just a logo: _Knowledge is Power_

Defeated, she turned around and made the slow walk back to her room, to the open window, to her prison. She did not have any other option but to live here, where she dreamed of children screaming as their lives were been torn from them, where she couldn't stop thinking about the parents who would miss them. The worst part was, no one would ever know these children's brains were been tampered with, that these men's and women's identities were been erased. The world always turned a blind eye to the orphaned and the poor, to those with no important status in society.

Thinking of Marcus, she sat on her bed, not really trying to escape the memories. Yearning for him, she let them fill her mind, even though she couldn't stand the guilt.

_"If this was the last day of your life, what would you do?"_

The words came to her mind easily, like the morning breeze that fluttered through the open window and caressed her face. She stood up and opened the drawer of her small desk: hidden under several colorful scarves was a small green ball he had given her. How he had been able to hide it from the facility, she had no idea, but somehow the strange object had found its way to her. It wasn't completely smooth, it had line patterns all around its surface as though it was supposed to open and transform into something else. It also had a transparent square lid under which was a small button.

_"If you would die today, what would you dare to do?"_

When he had first asked her that question, she had been terrified thinking that he could somehow see the future, and that she was going to die that very day. She soon learned that he couldn't possibly be psychic, but he _could_ sense her emotions and that scared her more than anything, even death. It meant he had power over her, that he knew things about her no one else knew, perhaps not even her. In her fear, she never answered his questions and tried to avoid him as much as she could. After being in the facility for about three months, he became so sick the experiments on him where stopped, and he had to be moved to an isolated room to be left alone for a while, probably hoping his condition would improve.

She was ordered to bring him his meals and give him some medications to improve his health, and that first morning of his seclusion she found herself reluctantly in front of his door, a tray in her hands. She remembered thinking it was ridiculous to be afraid when the man was tied down to his bed.

His room was cold and small; the naked walls were an ugly, pasty yellow. It had a single window that looked out to a gray wall. She half expected him to ask her again his strange questions, and was surprised when she came in and he didn't say a word. She didn't look at him as she walked through the room and set the tray on the small round table beside his bed. She could hear his breathing: gasps, wheezes. She turned around, wanting to escape the suffocating atmosphere as fast as she could, and it was at that moment that he spoke:

"If this was the last day of my life, I would tear this place to pieces and take it to hell with me."

"Could you do that?" her own voice surprised her. She had never expected him to say such words with such vehemence, especially in his current condition. She found herself looking at him, the fear suddenly forgotten, feeling slightly guilty and embarrassed at the curiosity in her tone. She knew he could sense the desire she felt at the possibilities of his statement.

He released a weak laugh, "it seems you are as much of a prisoner as I am."

As she looked at him, she noticed that his eyes were green. Not the deep green of a forest in full bloom, but the brownish green of a plant that was drying up and ready to die. His skin was a sickly gray; his face listless, his blond hair was slightly damp against his clammy brow.

Warmth spread through her face when she realized that he too was studying her face, and then it drained of all color when she realized what she was doing.

"Excuse me," she said softly, and quickly turned around to leave.

"What would _you_ do?" his voice stopped her as her hand grabbed the door knob, "if you were to die at the end of today?"

She remained silent for a moment, mentally debating with herself whether she should answer him or not. She finally sighed, defeated. She knew it wouldn't make any difference whichever she did. She couldn't change anything.

"I wouldn't do a thing," she replied, trying to control the sadness seeping in her voice "I would die quietly like a coward, and no one would ever know."

She opened the door and, just before she stepped outside, his gentle voice held her.

"_I_ would know."

And that day she realized that even if she couldn't change a thing, _he_ could, and that in him she could draw the strength to find a way out of here.

"I'm sorry," she whispered against the small, green ball, and it trembled against her fingers as if alive, as though it was only waiting for her to press the button and finally learn what it really was. But she resisted the temptation of opening the transparent lid, afraid it would only confirm her suspicions of his death.

Sighing, she returned the strange object back to its hiding place. She quickly washed her face, erasing all trace of her tears, then changed into a light blue shirt and jeans and braided her long, brown hair. She stole a glance at the white lab coat hanging on her door, and glared at it, wishing she could burn it. Today she was not going to wear it, today she would show a pinch of the meager courage she had. Today she wanted to feel more human.

She left her room, her place of protection, and walked through the clean halls of the facility. The whiteness of the walls and the slight smell of antiseptic reminded her of a hospital. But this was no place for curing people; this was the place where they destroyed them.

There were a few paintings hanging on the walls, paintings of fruits and landscapes and better times. She always wondered why would someone even bother hanging such things on the awful walls, since no amount of paintings or colors could make the place feel less inhuman.

There were other people on the hallways, all of them dressed in their white lab coats, busy trying to get to work. Like the useless paintings on the walls, they all wore fake smiles, as if such things could make them saints when they were demons in the hell-like place. Some of them nodded at her, others shook their heads slightly, as if they knew what she was thinking. A slight tremor of fear traveled through her body at their disappointed stare. They couldn't know what she was thinking, could they? If they did…

She then remembered that she wasn't wearing her lab coat, and released a silent relieved sigh. They were probably disappointed that she wasn't following the uniform code.

But if they knew what she was thinking… she would be in big troubles. They would know what she had done, what had actually happened to Marcus. She veered her thoughts away from that path, and kept walking to her destination, trying hard to ignore the stares of the people walking by.

Perhaps she was too absorbed by her thoughts, or perhaps she just felt pulled by his presence, but she realized too late that she had made a wrong turn and suddenly found herself in front of room 00252, where they were keeping the dark-haired boy. She stood there, staring at the white door, unsure of what to do. And then her hand found its way to the door handle and she opened the door silently.

The long room was dark. The only light came from a tall glass cylinder across the room that was filled with a strange liquid emitting a subtle green light. Small monitors surrounded the cylinder, and the only man behind one of them didn't even spare her a glance.

Inside of the cylinder was the boy, looking as if he merely slept. There were cables connected to his body, cables that could measure brain waves, electrolytes, and other things. His skin looked slightly pale, and the oxygen mask that covered half of his face couldn't hide the dark marks under his closed eyes. His dark hair floated lazily around his face, and his hands would sometimes twitch as if he was having a bad dream.

She stood there, transfixed by what she was seeing. His skin reflected the strange green light of the liquid, and for a moment she thought she saw a glint of silver traveling across his body, but that might just have been her imagination.

Slowly, very quietly, she made her way to the cylinder.

She didn't know what she was waiting for, perhaps for him to open his eyes and look back at her. But she knew that that was clearly impossible, since he was being injected with one of the most powerful anesthetic of the facility. For some reason seeing him unconscious bothered her, it made him look completely vulnerable; it made the cruel reality of his situation more real: that his life was at the mercy of those in the facility. And the facility had no mercy.

She didn't realize when she had placed her hands on the glass. She was now so close to him that she could see his chest rising with every breath he took from the mask. As she looked at the pallor of his face, she knew that if they didn't give him a break from all their experiments his condition would start to deteriorate, just like what had happened to Marcus. Even though he was an innovator, there was so much a human body could take.

Her hands dropped down and she lowered her sight. She clenched her jaw as she tried to fight the urge to curled her hands into fists. She was trying to hold down the frustration and powerlessness that were rising inside of her.

Didn't anybody else care? Surely someone, other than her, _better_ than her, felt guilty about what was going on.

She gave a jump when she heard the door behind her sliding open. She didn't want to turn around, afraid it could be her father, but she knew he had to be there, probably wondering what she was doing in the room.

"Might we know what you are doing here, Esmerie?"

The voice was not her father's, it was the grave voice of the head of the facility, Dr. Hachiro. She turned around to meet the gray eyes of a man in his mid thirties. He was tall, and his dark brown hair was already graying at the temple. Behind him was the unmistakable form of her father. He was a man who could pretend to be anyone he wanted and people would easily believe him, but she had seen him at work, she had noticed the half hidden glint of madness shining in his eyes. She couldn't be deceived by him anymore.

Her father was now looking up at the man before him, the man who had giving him back the opportunity to treat people as he wished, the man who praised him for his inhuman acts. What sicked her the most was that she knew there were people in higher ranks, probably in the government, probably afraid of the innovators, who paid for the expenses of the facility. For how else could the facility be running? They had such an advanced and expensive technology she knew it was simply impossible for just one man to be paying for all of it.

"I wanted to see how the liquid works," she answered, trying to hold down the tremor in her voice "I have never seen its effects on the body."

Her father smiled at her, as if pleased at her show of interest, and she felt a sickening lurch inside her.

"Why don't you go to the East wing to check the 'wandering lot'?" Dr. Hachiro said, sounding neither pleased nor reproachful. "It seems the new drugs you have helped developed are working."

She hated the way he said it, as if she was part of it all. She lowered her eyes, lest he notice the anger in them, and nodded. "Excuse me," she said and quickly left the room.

The 'wandering lot', as he had called them, were children aged 10 to 13 whose brains had been experimented on to such extremes that they had developed schizophrenic-like symptoms. The facility didn't know anymore what to do with them, but with the help of another pharmacist she had been able to develop a drug that had promising outcomes. She wanted to help those children return to their former self, but what was the point of it all if they would just continue to use them like lab rats?

She felt so sick to her stomach she had to stop walking for a moment, and used the wall beside her for support. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, blurring her vision. _No,_ she thought to herself, shutting her eyes tightly, _don't_ cry_. Not Here, not now. People will notice_.

She kept walking, hurriedly, worriedly, looking for a place where she could compose herself. _There_. Just a few steps away she found a washroom.

She closed the door behind her with a soft click, and made sure to bolt it. She leaned against the cold door as the tears started sliding down her cheeks. She stole a glance at her reflection in the mirror, and saw how her self-control was starting to fall apart by her conflicting emotions. But what could she possibly do? She couldn't stand up to the facility, to her father, to Dr. Hachiro. She didn't have the courage, she didn't have the voice. There was nothing she could do. And yet...

And yet she couldn't ignore the anger growing inside of her. Like the sun, she couldn't blow it away.

But she was a coward. She was afraid.

And so she just slid to the ground and cried silently.

* * *

In his state of unconsciousness, when Setsuna was unable to control even his own thoughts, memories kept pouring into his mind, and there was nothing he could do to stop them.

He was about nine years old. He was sitting by the door of his house, which wasn't really a door, just a hole covered with a rough dark blue cloth. This was as far as he was allow to be from the house when his parents weren't home. Anisa, the old woman who took care of him when his parents were absent, had already fallen asleep in the only chair they had, and he could hear her snoring inside even from where he was.

He was completely bored. He had been drawing on the ground with a stick until he didn't know what else to draw anymore. There was nothing to do, no toys to play with, nothing to think about. He lay on the ground, not caring that his clothes were being covered by the dust of the road, and that his mother would probably have a fit if she saw him. He was even looking forward to her rebuke, since it would be the only exciting event of the day.

"Soran! Hey Soran!"

He lazily looked to his right where he saw a boy two years older than him running toward him from the other side of the road. He sat up immediately, smiling shyly as he waved to the boy. His name was Asim, he was was on the popular kids of the community, the one who always got the leader's role when they played.

When Asim finally got across the road, Soran stood up and shook the dust from his shirt.

"There is someone I want you to meet," Asim said, a smile stretched on his face, "but we have to go now before the meeting is over."

"What meeting?" Soran asked, interested. His day seemed to have finally gotten better.

"You'll see. We have to leave now, my brother is already there. I swear, you'll like this guy, Soran. He doesn't treat us like children!" Asim had always being a very willful boy, who continually complained about the restrictions his parents put on him. Soran, on the other hand, was timid, and afraid of the world outside his house. But he wanted Asim to like him, and was happy that he had come looking for him.

"Is it far?" He asked, hating how his voice sounded like a baby's. He wanted to be confident like Asim, he wanted to be strong and brave.

Asim crossed his arms, looking disappointed. "If you don't wanna come then say so."

"No, no. I'll come!" Soran replied immediately, already imagining the snickers from the other boys if he showed cowardice. He refused to think about his parents' reaction when they wouldn't found him home. Hopefully, they would come back home late, very late, and never know that he had left.

"Let's go then!" Asim smiled, and started running across the road.

Asim was fast, and even though Soran was shorter than him, he had no problem catching up to him. He might have many things that he disliked about himself, like his lack of confidence, but he prided himself in his speed. Adrenaline pumped through his blood as he tried to avoid the people on the streets, not really paying attention to where they were heading. All he cared about was to show Asim that he could be as fast he was.

But suddenly there were less and less people, and they arrived to a place he had never seen before. The only noise he heard now was the pounding of their feet on the hard ground as they kept running. There were buildings that looked old, even older than his own house, and neglected. They looked as if they had been abandoned long ago. Their dark windows looked down on them.

The desolated atmosphere made Soran think that perhaps he had made the wrong decision, but he couldn't back out now. It would made him look worst than if he had refuse to come from the very beginning. He ran as close to Asim as he could, trying not to seem too frightened.

"There it is," Asim said between gasps, pointing at a house that looked shabbier than the rest. But it had a door, a real door, and the windows were covered with black pieces of cloth.

"Well, Soran, here we are," Asim smiled at him as they stopped in front of the house, panting, but Soran couldn't even feign excitement. Asim laughed at his expression, and he wished he wouldn't. Not because he was embarrassed, but because it sounded wrong in the lifeless place.

"Relax, I promised you would like it, didn't I?" Asim said as he opened the door and ushered the younger boy inside.

After the brightness from the sun outside, it took him a few seconds to adjust his eyes to the semi darkness. The room was bigger than he had expected, and only a few candles dissipated the shadows from the corners. There were other children inside, boys about his own age, and a couple of men sitting beside them, whispering in quiet, deep voices. He had never seen those tall men before.

"Come on," Asim whispered, and they sat on an empty spot.

Soran was nervous, he couldn't stop fidgeting. He wanted to stand up and run back to his house. Why did he come? What if his parents had already realize that he wasn't home? He couldn't make them feel worried, specially when his mother had been sick and had had to go to the doctor almost every day. Why hadn't he thought of that before instead of pretending to be brave? But the truth was, he was afraid. He didn't like to be in an unknown place, specially one hidden in darkness in a desolated town, with frightening tall men and small boys who seemed to already know why they had been brought there.

"I have to go," he said, not caring anymore what his friends would think of him. He just wanted to get out of the dark room, of the town that felt like a cemetery. But Asim stopped him as he tried to stand up.

"Not yet, just wait till you see him," he insisted, and Soran had no other choice but to sit down.

There was another door across the room, a door they all seemed to be waiting for to open. The excitement in the atmosphere grew as the other boys looked at it expectantly. Soran only grew more anxious, his hands were sweating, and he couldn't stop thinking about the worry gnawing at the back of his mind.

The door finally opened, silently, and a man entered the room, a man whose very presence exuded confidence.

"Welcome to the KPSA," he said, smiling, his eyes stopping for a few seconds on Soran.

That was the day he met Ali al-Saachez.

* * *

Sooo... I haven't seen the first season of gundam 00 in a long time, and the anime is very vague about Setsuna's childhood, so if you find something that's different from the anime, please bear with me. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Don't forget to review!


	7. Chapter 7

Hi y'all! So... I found this chapter... extremely hard to write. Compared to this one, the previous one was a breeze . , I just hope u guys enjoy it as much as i enjoyed writing it (even though it was painful haha). Thanks again for all your reviews, without them I would have probably given up on this story a long time ago :)

* * *

It had been five days since Setsuna had disappeared. Five days that had felt like months. They had only been able to confirm that none of the bodies they had found had been his, which was pretty much useless since they had already suspected that. Two days later they finally learned that the man who took him was called Irie Hayashi, who was, in fact, the chief policeman of the now destroyed police station.

Since learning that fact, Lyle and Allelujah had been trying to get information from the rest of the members of the station, but to no avail. They had been trying to explain to them what had happened, how Irie Hayashi had taken Setsuna and disappeared, and how the burnt bodies couldn't be either of them. But the policemen simply did not believe them. How could they even think such a thing about a respected man? And why would Irie kidnap Setsuna? That was a question that not even Celestial Being knew the answer to.

Though the policemen tried to seem empathetic for what they thought was their loss (they kept affirming that one of the burnt bodies was Setsuna), they refused any of their questions about the explosion, stating that it was a police case and not something tourists should worry about.

"We understand how this has upset you," one of the policemen said, his compassionate expression getting on Lyle's nerve, "however, you must know that, though you mean well, you are interfering with our work. We will find the culprit who did this and bring them to justice. Please refrain from entering the scene of the incident. We have lost one of our men too, be assure that we understand how you feel."

"Hayashi is not dead," Allelujah replied, his fists clenching, trying to hold down the frustration he felt. The only answer he got was another sympathetic look from the policeman, who was starting to lose his patience.

"We will let you know if we find any new information," he said "will you please tell me where you're staying at?"

Suppressing the urge to hit him, Lyle turned around without even answering him and walked away, Allelujah following quietly behind him. He felt an unbearable frustration growing inside of him, as if he was in a maze without a way out, and he was pretty sure that the rest of the crew of Celestial being shared his feeling. Even with all the problems and tragedies they had had to go through the years, never before had they felt at such a loss as to what to do. Not being able to do something useful, something that could bring him the answer as to what happened to Setsuna, didn't sit well with him. Even Tieria, with all of his knowledge and abilities of getting information from Veda, hadn't been able to find anything about Irie Hayashi. There was no information of him anywhere, not even in the computer system of the police station.

Irie Hayashi suddenly did not exist.

Lyle couldn't help but think that it was already too late, that Setsuna was probably already far away and they would never be able to find him. If the man who took him was probably in another continent all together, as he suspected he was, how could they even hope to find him?

"Excuse me!"

He heard the hurried call of a man trying to catch up with them, and decided to ignore it.

"Excuse me, sirs!"

Lyle sighed, stopped, and turned around. A young man of about twenty years was trotting towards them, his clean uniform stating that he was another one of those annoying policemen. He looked younger than his age, his babyish physical traits made it hard to take him seriously as a man of the law.

"What do you want?" Allelujah asked him tiredly. As much as he tried to, he couldn't ignore the worry gnawing at his mind. He had this bad feeling about Setsuna he couldn't shake away, as if they were running out of time. And he was worried for Feldt. The pink haired girl hadn't said a word since the night at the burning station.

"I—well…" the young policeman looked nervous as he fumbled for words, not meeting his eyes, while Lyle and Allelujah looked at him irritatingly. They didn't have time for this. The boy cleared his throat and finally met their eyes, "my commanding officer is wondering where you would like the body."

"What body?" Lyle asked him.

The boy looked startled at his question. "Well, the body sir. I mean, your… your friend's body."

Lyle stood quietly studying him, wondering if the boy was serious about being a policeman. He was certainly not cut for the job.

"Tell your commanding officer we don't know what he is talking about," he answered, turning around, "he can keep it for all we care."

"Wait!" he grabbed his arm to stop him, and by the glare he received he knew he had made the wrong move. He quickly dropped his arm and stepped away. "I… I'm sorry, I know the current situation is difficu—"

Lyle was at his limit. He couldn't stand it anymore. He grabbed the boy by his shirt, "your _chief_ took our friend, dragged him away for _no reason_, and that's all you've got to say? That you're _sorry_?" he shoved him away angrily.

The young man stammered in defense, "he suspected him to be a dangerous crimin—"

"Were you one of the men who helped him take Setsuna away?" Lyle interrupted him, his eyes narrowing dangerously. He was grabbing him by his shirt again, his furious face mere inches from the young man's.

"Please sir," he replied, trying to sound firm and authoritative, but unable to control the slight tremor in his voice, "this is a peaceful island; I will not allow you to use violence. I know how difficult this situ—"

"If this island is so peaceful, why was he looking for a dangerous criminal?" Lyle replied. "Who was this criminal he had been looking for? Are there pictures of him around? Posters or something?"

"No. I mean, there are no posters of him here. I suppose he was a wanted person he recognized from his country," the boy answered, unable to hide the pallor of fear spreading on his face, making his freckles stand out. If he was able to shake him up so easily, Lyle wondered how this cowering youth had been able to become a policeman at all. "Irie was not from here, you see." The boy finished, wondering if the man was going to hit him.

"Where was he from?"

"From the Republic of Taribia," he answered "he— he came here about a year ago."

"You've known him for that long?" Allelujah asked him.

He shook his head. "N—no, he was hired three months ago by our previous chief."

"Who is…"

"Kosuke Ren. He retired already, he was looking for someone to take his place."

Lyle frowned, "and he chose a stranger?"

"Irie passed all the tests. He was a good man, and had good references from where he came from." By the way he said it, it was easy to see that the young man had admired him. "He would have never apprehended a man for no reason."

"Where does Kosuke Ren live?"

"He used to live—"

"Yamada!"

Lyle slowly released him, and stepped away, meeting the eyes of the policeman with whom they had talked with before. The younger man quickly turned around, his shoulders tensing at the look of reprimand from his commanding officer.

"They do not wish to keep the body, sir," he said at once. His whole body tensed further as though he was wondering if he should have worded it differently.

The commanding officer nodded, his eyes still on Lyle, "are you still trying to offend the name of Irie Hayashi?" he asked, "I understand you are upset, that you are looking for someone to blame. Death of a loved makes us react that way. But I warn you, if you keep trying to blacken the name of an honorable man who died while in service, I will have to apprehend you two. I repeat, will not allow you to interfere in our work." With that, he turned around and left, the younger man quickly following him.

"At least Yamada was more useful than him," Allelujah said, looking as the two men entered the site of the explosion, "maybe we can get something more from Kosuke Ren."

Later that day, Lyle found himself walking alongside of Feldt towards the house of the retired policeman, whose address Tieria had had no problem finding. A camera was hanging on his chest, and he had a notepad in hand. They were supposed to pretend to be a pair of journalists from Japan, looking for information to write an article about the explosion. He knew the set up was necessary; otherwise the man might just refuse their questions if they mentioned that Irie Hayashi was not, in fact, dead, nor was he an honorable man, but the man who had kidnapped Setsuna for no apparent reason. However, he was used to action, and he did not like the passiveness of this mission.

He stole a glance at the pink haired girl walking beside him. She looked calm, _too_ calm, and he couldn't help but think that she was just like a ticking bomb that could explode at any moment. He truly believed that there was nothing more dangerous than a person who had just lost someone precious, and who looked extremely calm. Hadn't he experienced that? He remembered when Setsuna had killed Anew, how he had beaten him up, just like how Feldt had shaken the policeman during the night of the explosion, and how, afterwards when he had seemed composed, he had almost pulled the trigger on Setsuna. Was Feldt, the shy and quiet, sweet girl, capable of killing someone? He looked at her again, at the deadly glint of determination that burned in her eyes, at the rigidness of her body as she moved, and wondered about the wisdom of sending her with him to interrogate a man who could easily seem the enemy. Though he thought it was mean, he would prefer if she would cry, at least that would be the normal reaction from someone going through her situation. He was afraid that her next outburst was going to be something they would not like.

"There it is," Feldt said, her voice void of any emotion, and Lyle stared straight ahead.

The house looked old. It stood on a lonely hill away from the pretty houses that surrounded the area. A single tree guarded the way to it, with a forgotten swing hanging from the lowest branch, its wooden plank rotting. A patch of yellow grass covered the ground at the left side of the house, marking the place of a neglected flower garden.

As they approached the small building, they noticed that the windows were all covered by blue curtains, its color fading from the passing of time. But the door was open, swinging slowly with the passing breeze, creaking quietly as if grieving its sorry state.

"It seems he hasn't have the best of lucks," Lyle remarked, studying the deteriorating condition of the area. He would have thought that a retired policeman would have had a better place to live.

They stopped near the door, and looked in into the house. Even plunged in darkness, it was easy to see that the living room before them was covered in dust. All the furniture was wrapped with black plastic bags, and there were patches on the walls suggesting that pictures had hung on them at some point in time.

Lyle knocked on the door hesitantly.

"Hello?" He called out, and his voice echoed dully inside the building. He wondered if the place had been abandoned a long time ago. What had the Yamata kid said? That Kosuke used to live... He hadn't been able to finish his comment. Perhaps Kosuke Ren had moved away? But no, he noticed light coming from underneath a closed door. Dimmed as it was, it was the only sign that the house was still being inhabited. He called again, but no one answered.

"Come Feldt," he said, and they both entered the house.

Even with the entrance door opened, the heat inside was infernal. There was a strong smell of tobacco and burned food that lingered in the place. Hoping they wouldn't have to stay too long inside the smelly, hot building, they quickly headed towards the closed door.

"Hello?" Lyle knocked on it, but again there was no answer. "I guess we should-"

Before he could stop her, Feldt opened the door and entered the room.

"Didn't someone ever taught you not to enter private property?"

Hearing the angry voice, he entered after her, praying they wouldn't be quickly kicked out of the house before even asking a few questions.

he man sitting on the old sofa looked as deteriorated as the house itself, if not worst. They knew that Kosuke Ren was around fifty years old, but the person before them looked easily in his eighties. There wasn't an inch in his face that wasn't lined with wrinkles, and there wasn't a hair on his head that hadn't grayed, even his sparse eyebrows had lost their previous color.

He was extremely thin.

His arms poked out of his body pathetically like a pair of sticks, and his pants looked way too large for his legs, threatening to fall if he stood up. Even his head seemed too heavy for his thin neck to support.

Kosuke Ren squinted at them suspiciously. Who were they? The young woman with the angry expression wasn't someone he recognized, after all he knew of no one who had that strange, _repulsive_ shade of pink of her short hair, and he could say for sure that he had never seen the tall man who had entered the room after her.

He hadn't been expecting company that day. In fact, he never expected company. All those who knew him thought he had left, except for a woman who brought him food every weekend and who, at a great fee, kept his current situation a secret.

"We apologize for the intrusion, we thought there was no one in the house," the tall man said, his expression respectful.

"And so you decided to barge in?" Kosuke replied, "what kind of a excuse is that? If you've come looking for a place for your love adventures, you'll have to look somewhere else."

He saw with satisfaction the girl blushing, the color spreading furiously on her face was almost as brilliant as her hair. There was a look of pure indignation in her eyes.

"We are journalists," the young man retorted, sadly unaffected by his comment. "My name is Aoi, and this is my _coworker_ Tsuki," he pointed at the girl who now looked as if she was trying really hard to hold something down. _We've got some temper, do we now?_ Kosuke thought, secretly amused. Her furious blush hadn't quite disappeared yet.

"Are you Kosuke Ren?"

He looked back at the young man, surprised. how did he know that?

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"We want to write an article about the incident at the police station," the man explained. _What incident?_ "We learned that you used to be the chief policeman of that same station. We would like to ask you some questions about your time in service."

So they knew for sure who he was...

He held the younger man's eyes, his expression not hiding his displeasure, and sighed deeply "Aren't you ashamed of bothering a sick man?"

"We won't take too long," he affirmed annoyingly. Journalists knew no shame. "A couple of question and we will leave."

"What are you, a detective or something?" Kosuke pointed a finger at him and was about to say something else when he suddenly bent down and started coughing, his body shaking as he tried to clear his airways. He felt as if his lungs were being torn to pieces. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the coughs subsided, and he leaned back on the sofa breathing hard, beads of sweat dampening his brow.

"Leave," he said, his voice a raspy whisper "just leave me alone."

From the corner of his eye he saw the man sighing, and turning around to leave. He closed his eyes, glad that he would be able to finally have some peace.

"Why aren't you in a hospital?"

He growled under his breath, and opened his eyes to look at the pink-haired girl. "That's none of your business," he replied drily and closed his eyes again. " "I thought you were a journalist, not a doctor."

"You'll just die quicker if you stay in this house, don't you know?" She continued, ignoring his glare, "What did you do that was so terrible that they left you to live here? The house is falling apart."

He looked daggers at her. Why wouldn't she just leave? He was feeling a dreadful headache coming, and his health couldn't take his angered state. He glanced at the younger man who was looking at his partner cautiously, as if she could suddenly sprout horns or something. Who _were_ these people?

"Take your friend and leave," Kosuke warned him, he wasn't in the mood to entertainment them.

The man gently put his hand on her shoulder. "Feldt-"

But she shook his hand away. "You have an illness that's progressing quickly, don't you?"

Kosuke tried to hide his surprise at her question, but failed. How did she know?

"You retired three months ago," she continued "if your colleagues at the police station knew about the state you are in, they wouldn't allow you to stay here. After all, you were their _chief._ This probably means that they haven't visit you, and that three months ago was the last time they saw you, when you did not look as you do now. Did you tell them you were out on a trip or something?"

"Get out," Kosuke replied icily.

"Why aren't you in a hospital?" She asked him again "Do you want to die that badly?"

"Feldt!" The man grabbed her arm, apparently shock at her words.

Kosuke was about to make a harsh reply, but he suddenly winced and rubbed his temples, the threatening headache finally taking over him.

He sighed "congratulations, woman, you discovered my _malicious _plan of hiding here from my colleagues, are you putting that on your newspaper too?"

"Why aren't you in a hospital?" She insisted.

"For the love of God, why does that even matter? _It's none of your business_!" Would they ever leave? But the girl still stayed in front of him, looking down at him defiantly. Anger swelled inside of him, making his blood run hot.

"There's no cure!" He finally shouted out, surprised that he was able to raise his voice. "Those incompetent doctors don't even know what I have, and their useless medicine doesn't work."

"But those ones do?" She was pointing at a small table hidden in the darkest part of the room, its surface covered with empty vials and syringes, and he felt the blood draining from his face.

"There's nothing illegal about those," he stated drily.

"I never said there was," the girl said "but if they _were_ illegal, it would be quite a problem for you, wouldn't it, _chief_?"

He stared at her, wondering how the hell he ended up in this situation. "Who are you?"

"Tell me about Irie Hayashi."

He winced. Of all the things he thought she would ask him, he would have never thought he would hear that name.

"He is a policeman," he answered, almost too quickly "why don't you ask him about himself instead of pestering me with useless questions?"

"He's dead," the girl answered "he died at the explosion after apprehending a criminal."

Kosuke's eyes widened in surprise. Hayashi died... ? No, he couldn't be dead, could he? And the criminal... did that mean... _Had he finally found someone?_ He thought.

"You didn't know?"

The girl interrupted his sudden burst of thoughts. She was studying him closely, and the man who had come with her was looking at him the same way.

"No, I didn't," he answered "that's really a pity." As hard as he tried to remain calm, he knew he looked troubled.

"You knew him well," the man said. It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Kosuke tried very hard to keep his voice steady. "Not that well, really," he said, that much was true, "I hired him three months ago."

"To work as a policeman?"

"Of course, for what else would I hire him?" He answered irritably.

"Where does he come from?"

Kosuke's mind became blank for a moment, for he had no answer to that question. He had no idea where the man had come from, and he hadn't bothered to ask. When he had met him, the only thing he had cared about was the medicine, and of course he would have never thought he would be interrogated by these two.

"He was born here," he finally answered "he had being living in this island for his entire life."

"And yet you didn't know him that well?" the girl was frowning at him, and he wished he could kick her.

"It's a large island," he answered simply "are we done with the stream of questions?"

The girl remained quiet for a moment, and he hoped in vain that the strange interrogation was finally at its end. _Journalists, yeah right!_ He thought. Who were they really?

"Why did you hire him?"

He sighed. "He was a good man, well prepare for the job. I might even say he was better than most of my men."

"And he gave you the medicine?"

He looked at her, and he knew that there was no point in lying. He could at least hide most of the truth.

"Yes," he answered "I told him about my situation, about my disease, and he gave it to me. It's an alternative medicine, _natural _medicine, you know? Nothing illegal about that."

The girl walked towards the small table, ignoring his bursts of indignation, and grabbed one of vials that hadn't yet been opened. "I don't suppose you mind me taking this, do you?"

"Oh I _mind_," he answered heatedly "but I don't suppose I have a choice, do I? You are wasting your time anyways, I've told you like three times that there is nothing illegal about it."

"I believe you," the girl answered, having the nerve to look suddenly innocent, and he hated her even more for it, "I'm just curious about how this medicine was made."

This time he felt his whole body go cold. Did they suspect? Did they know...?

"Are you alright, sir?" the girl asked him, looking concerned.

"Of course not! I am sick, and you are bothering me with your stupid questions," he cleared his throat, trying to hold down another fit of coughing "I hope you are happy, pestering an old man who needs rest and stealing his medicine. I should report both of you!_"_

The girl had the nerve to smile. "We will leave you then to rest," she said, and walked toward her partner "thank you for your time." and with that she grabbed the man's arm and left the room, closing the door behind her, before he could even throw at her the stream of curses she deserved.

But as he sat in his room alone, silence finally settling around him, his body started shaking and he knew it had nothing to do with his disease.

He was afraid. What had he brought down upon himself? Who were they?

* * *

Lyle was trying to keep up with her. As soon as she had closed the door, Feldt had dropped his arm and stormed out of the house, without waiting for him. The sun was hiding behind a group of gray clouds, and the wind blew strongly against them, whipping his hair around his face. He was impressed by her performance, he had never thought she could behave like that, least of all get answers from the man when he had thought it impossible.

"Feldt!" He called out to her, and still she ignored him, her pace quickening. He trotted towards her and grabbed her arm to stop her. "Feldt, what's wrong?"

His heart broke at the look in her face. She was trying hard to hold back the tears, but they still fell from her eyes, wetting the front of her shirt

"I-I'm sorry," she stammered, lowering her eyes, trying to dry the tears with her hands. She laughed a little, a pitiful sound, "I'm a mess, huh?"

For some reason, he felt relieved. _This_ was the Feldt he knew. He gently grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to himself, embracing her. Her body tensed for a moment, and then relaxed as she let the tears flow freely.

"I know this is hard, Feldt," he said, gently resting his head on top of hers, "but you did good. You did really good."

"I-" she swallowed and tried again "I know is dumb but... I just can't stop thinking... if it wasn't because of me... if Setsuna hadn't come with me that day... this would have never happened."

There. She said it. That bitter thought had been plaguing her day and night, and it was a strange relieve to had finally said it out loud.

"If he heard you saying that, what would he tell you?" Lyle asked her.

She smiled a little, despite herself. "That I am being an idiot."

"Exactly," he replied. They remained in silence for a moment, the first drops of rain falling on their heads.

She couldn't help but think about that day, the only day she had spent alone with Setsuna. About how he had held her close to him, how he had held her gaze, and warmth had spread all over her body. What had he told her? He had rested his brow against her own, while his breath had tickled her face and had murmured something.. something about things she shouldn't know... things he had done in his past. And then the drunk men arrived and the whole nightmare started.

"I know it's easy to feel guilty," Lyle continued, not realizing that she had suddenly stopped crying. "but you shouldn't let that haunt you. It was _not_ your fault, Feldt, and I assure you that we will find him. After all, we have finally found a clue, right?"

She didn't answer him.

"Feldt?" Worried, he gently pulled her away to look at her.

She was looking straight ahead with widened eyes. She had suddenly remembered something.

"Are you ok?" Lyle's voice sounded muffled to her ears.

"How could I be so stupid?" She whispered. How didn't she realize before?

"Feldt?"

She looked up at Lyle, who was staring down at her with concern. "His eyes," she said suddenly, and he frowned as if she was making no sense, "his eyes had changed color."

"I don't follow you."

"That night, when we met Irie Hayashi, Setsuna's eyes were still giving off those strange colors of an innovator," she explained. She had grown so used to Setsuna's characteristics as an innovator that she had completely ignored that detail. "Hayashi knew that Setsuna was an innovator."

Thoughts were racing through both of their minds, trying to make sense of the new information lighting up Setsuna's disappearance.

"But why would he take him? And why take such extreme measures to do so?" She asked, thinking hard. _How could he act so quickly? It was almost as if... as if he had being prepared, as if he had planned all along to take him. But... How can that be? _"He didn't know Setsuna until that very moment... so then... how?"

"If it's true what you say, then it didn't matter whom he decided to take, as long as it was an innovator," Lyle answered, deep in thought "he was just waiting to meet one, meanwhile making all the necessary preparations to take whichever one crossed his path."

Feldt could hear her heart beating in her ears. "But why? Why would he want to abduct an innovator?"

His eyes simply held hers quietly, and she looked down at the vial in her hands. She remembered hearing stories about Allelujah, remembered Marie mentioning some things about an institute. Horror washed over her.

"You don't think-" She couldn't finish her question, couldn't face the truth of it. She looked up at Lyle again, and the way he was staring at her was her answer. Silence settled between them, oppressing them. The wind still blew strongly against them, and the rain was now falling in a continuous stream. They stood there, in the middle of the road, near the tree guarding the way towards the old house, the rotten swing shrieking indignantly as the wind swung it.

They couldn't bring themselves to voice what they already knew.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8! Enjoy :)

* * *

Charlotte Cross was deep in thought as she worked in the lab. However, it wasn't the development of a new drug that consumed her mind, but a worry that she had tried to ignore during the last days that made it hard to concentrate during that morning.

She was a pharmacist whose brilliant mind and a desire for changes had gained her a place in the facility. A pharmacist who had been, in fact, begged to come and work for Dr. Hachiro. However, they needn't have to beg her so, for Charlotte was fascinated by the work she was able to do here, where she didn't have to worry about ethics or troublesome paperwork, to carry on with experiments she had been dying to try on subjects whose physical capacity amazed her.

It was not that Charlotte Cross was inhuman, or cruel, at least she did not see herself that way. It was not that she did the things she did just for her own entertainment. She truly believed that her part in the facility could help people, especially those who were being quickly forgotten as humanity evolved. After all, medicine had always advanced that way, hadn't it? There were a lot of drugs out there for which people were grateful, and that had been developed under experiments that put a frown on many.

So it was rather unusual, if not alarming, when such a passionate and hardworking pharmacist found it impossible to focus on her work that morning. Charlotte sighed, and looked at the girl who was working a couple of benches beside her, an another worry clouded her mind.

Feeling her eyes on her, Esmerie looked up to where her superior was working. "Is everything ok?" She asked, surprise to see the older woman lost in her thoughts for the first time since they had met.

"Don't get distracted, Esmerie," Charlotte replied. "Remember that distraction is the easiest way to make a mistake."

"Yes, of course," Esmerie answered, fighting the urge to add that Charlotte was the one who looked the most distracted, and went back to making some calculations for one of the medications they were working on.

The girl was brilliant. If her pride would allow her to admit it, Charlotte would go as far as to say that the younger woman was even more brilliant than her. Even at her young age, she had a way with the medications, a way of reasoning, of looking at the reactions of the drugs, that would put to shame the best scientist. But the fact that she was the daughter of Dr. Kenta only made Charlotte think that maybe… No, she hated that thought, hated the fact that Esmerie was there, working with her. The girl shouldn't be here, but at a school, somewhere far away where she could have friends, go out with a boy, worry about trivial things that teenagers worried about, and not about the subjects who had died or who had been driven mad by their experiments. She could see it sometimes, the misery that shrouded the girl's eyes, and repulsive anger filled her at her father, who had dragged her here and tainted her life forever. She knew that Esmerie would never be able to have a normal life.

But there was something else that worried her, something that made her nervous and that she couldn't quite understand, and Charlotte was a person who rarely became nervous.

"Miss Cross?"

Esmerie's quiet voice pulled her out of her thoughts, looking at her with concern. After all, it wasn't every day that Charlotte Cross could not focus to work.

"I'm done with the calculations," Esmerie said quickly, before the older woman rebuked her again for distracting herself. "You seem awfully quiet today."

Charlotte rested her head in her hands. "I'm just worried about subject 00252," she said.

Esmerie's heart skipped a beat the tiniest bit at the mention of the dark haired boy. "Setsuna?" She asked. That's what her father had said the boy's name was.

"Have you seen the studies made of his body? They're fascinating. The speed at which his cells regenerate, the balance of chemicals in his body, the way he reacts to the medications we give him. It's truly fascinating."

Esmerie clenched her fist, and tried as hard as she could not to show any emotion on her face. "And this worries you because…?"

Charlotte met her eyes, making the girl fidget at the seriousness of her glance. "This boy, this _Setsuna_, is not a normal innovator."

Esmerie just stared at her, not understanding what she meant.

The older woman sat in silence for a moment, as if trying to look for the way to explain. "We have been mainly dealing with people who are very close of becoming innovators," she said. "We have only found four true innovators, subject 00252 being, of course, the fourth. They are all supposed to have the same characteristics: a stronger body, longer life span, incredibly fast cell regeneration. However, subject 00252… how do I say this… he is nothing like them."

Esmerie had sworn to herself that she was going to stop thinking about the dark haired boy, about Marcus. Dwelling on those thoughts was too risky, however Charlotte's words piqued her curiosity. "How so?" She asked.

Charlotte met her eyes again. "There's something in his body… something that that prevents us from fully decoding his genes, from creating the changes we want in his body. It is as if… as if, even in his unconscious state, his body is protecting itself against us." She stopped for a moment, unsure if she could say the next. But explaining what she felt helped her rearrange her troubling thoughts. "It is strange," she continued, "but sometimes I feel as if… as if there was another entity living inside of him," she fought the urge to shudder. "I feel it here," she touched her head, "in my mind. When I'm close to him, it's as if something… something _alien_ brushes against my mind." She had goose bumps in her arms. "I tried explaining it to Dr. Hachiro, but it seems I'm the only one who feels that way. It's weird, isn't it?"

Esmerie shrugged. Charlotte's description of what she felt had sent a shiver running up her spine, and she didn't know what to think of that. She had too many things in her mind to start worrying about stuff that seemed to come out of a science fiction movie.

"But that's not what worries me." Charlotte continued, pulling Esmerie from her thoughts. "Where did your father said he found him?"

"At one of the northern islands," she answered. "My father went there to check out the new facility for the training of innovators."

The government had started building schools for people who were becoming innovators, in order to make the transition easier for them. Since it had been harder and harder to find convenient subjects on the common streets, her father had obtained permission to look around the areas of such schools.

"He said subject 00252 had recently arrived to the island to enlist to the facility, but never had to chance to." She continued. The boy had the bad luck of crossing paths with her father.

"Did your father make a thoroughly search of the subject's background?"

"Of course, he is required to do it." Her father wouldn't be stupid enough as to abduct a man without making sure that no one would be looking for him, at least no one important. "According to my father, subject 00252 is originally from Azadistan," she explained. "His parents died during a civil war, and he was living with an older sister. He apparently received some funds to study at one of the facilities for innovators."

Charlotte remained in silent once again, deep in thought. "I just can't stop thinking that someone like him, someone with his physical capacities, was simply a student." She finally said. "I have the feeling that this man, this _Setsuna_, is something else entirely."

For some reason, another shiver ran down Esmerie's spine. Involuntarily, she thought again of the boy, of his unconscious form, of the way he had looked at her when he had woken up, before she delivered him the anesthesia. She had never thought of him as no more than an ordinary man, a young man who had the special characteristics that had brought him to this place, who had the misfortune of meeting her father. But what if he was much more than that? What if Charlotte was right? What if her father had, in fact, gotten carried away by his ambition and brought him here without truly knowing who the man was?

"I am not doubting your father," Charlotte said quickly, as if realizing the seriousness of what she had said. "I am sure that Dr. Hachiro confirmed his information about subject 00252 thoroughly."

Esmerie looked at her. The woman was speaking as though to convince herself. It was the first time she saw her like that.

"It was just a thought," Charlotte insisted.

"You are afraid that subject 00252 is part of the military or some powerful organisation?" Esmerie asked her. When she saw the woman stiffen at her words, she had her answer. "Miss Cross, my father has had the responsibility of looking for subjects for the last year, without ever having an incident. He would never throw away his job, or his life for that matter, by bringing a man who could be the end of all of us."

Charlotte looked at the younger woman, at the confidence in her eyes, and felt her worry dissipating away. Perhaps she worried too much. She smiled, feeling slightly embarrassed and angry at herself for seeming weak and scared before Esmerie. "Thank you, Esmerie. I should go back to work."

However, if she would have known what exactly was in Esmerie's mind, or how well she had learned to mask her real emotions, she would have never resumed her duties for that day so calmly.

Esmerie tried to fight the slight tremor in her fingers as she kept working in the lab. The pounding of her heart against her ears made it hard to concentrate. She glanced at the clock: 10:30 AM._ One hour and a half_, she thought,_ one hour and a half until lunch break._ She tried to ignore the thoughts that clamoured for her attention and focused instead on the task at hand. She just had to remain calm until 12 o'clock.

The time went by agonizingly slowly.

Somehow, she managed to do her job without raising any comments from Charlotte. Somehow she had convinced the older woman that she wasn't worrying about anything. She didn't give any hints that all she wanted was to rush out of the room as quickly as possible.

When the clock finally ticked away the last minute of 11 AM, she put her pencil down, wished Charlotte a good meal, and left the room, her pace not quicker than the day before. The people she passed by on the way to her room did not notice how hard she was trying to retrain herself. She had to mentally count her steps to stop herself from running, as her body itched to do. She had to look down, away from the others' scrutinizing eyes, not sure for how long she could keep her emotions in check, for how long she could hide the excitement that was trying to burst forward, to take off the mask of indifference she had learn to wear as her facial expression.

She finally found herself inside her room, leaning against her door as if expecting someone to choose that moment to barge in. she slid down and sat against the cold floor, and let her thoughts roam free.

If Charlotte Cross was right… If her suspicions were right and the boy was not simply another common person who could easily be forgotten by society… if there were people, powerful people looking for him, then she might have a chance out of this island.

She sat there, fidgeting, thinking of all the possibilities. She could go anywhere far away from this prison, somewhere sunny, somewhere where she would never have to think about children losing their minds because of experiments. She could leave her father forever.

But what were the chances of that happening? Of her father actually bringing someone without carefully checking their background? Of the boy, looking in his early twenties, of being part of some organisation that care enough for him to take notice of his absence? And even if there were people looking for him, what was the probability of them actually finding the facility? None of it seemed very likely.

The silence in the room weighted heavily on her shoulders. She lifted her knees up to her chin and hugged them tightly.

Her excitement faded, her heart rate slowed down.

What had she been thinking? How could she be so foolish?

Unexpected tears prickled her eyes. She felt like a child who had just been told that Santa was not real. The taste of freedom had been so sweet, so irresistible, that she hadn't thought things clearly before letting the excitement wash over her.

She sighed, her shoulders slumping down in acceptance of her fate. There was no way out of this island, no way someone could find the facility, no way the boy could be more special than those who had been dragged into the nightmare before him.

She hid her face in her arms. She felt more alone than ever before.

But a small trace of hope still lingered in the deepest part of her, and suddenly she couldn't ignore it. Because if there was the possibility, the slightest possibility, that her father _had_ made a mistake, she couldn't overlook it.

A resolution came to her, a resolution that most part of her being, the part that was afraid, shied away from. But the part of her that had hope, the part that had tasted freedom, held on to it until the thought burned in her mind and made her tremble.

She would get to know subject 00252, she would get to know Setsuna. She would become part of the team that experimented on him and find out whether or not he was someone else, whether there were people looking for him… and somehow (she didn't yet know how), she would help them find him.

* * *

At this moment for Setsuna there was no facility, no island, no Dr. Hachiro. Celestial Being didn't even exist. For even though his body was tied down to a medical chair, his mind was far away, roaming in the past, digging secrets he had long ago buried in the hope of forgetting them, or of being forgiven. In his mind, at that moment, he was ten years old, and Setsuna F Seie did not yet exist.

He was eating with his mother in their small house. The day outside was hot and dry, and the wind had died down sometime in the morning. Now and then they heard the far away sounds of war, of bombs crashing against the ground, of people whimpering just outside their door, whispering of fears that consumed them.

His mother watched the door with an aching heart, as if expecting her husband to come in at any moment. But she knew his return wasn't expected until five days later. She sighed, and shifted her attention to her son, and a frown came to her tired face.

He was not the same anymore. It had nothing to do with being introverted, because he had always been like that, but now he barely spoke with her, as if he had something in his mind that consumed his every thought. Her only son, her little Soran who had to be coaxed to play with other kids because he was too shy, had suddenly changed.

No, not suddenly. She had noticed little changes here and there throughout the days, but she had been absent for such long periods of time that she hadn't taken them seriously. But now, as she looked at him while they ate, she paid attention.

The shy twinkle in his eyes was gone, and now a solemnity haunted his expression, a tension that shouldn't be there in a child his age. He sat there rigidly, looking as if a wall had been built between them. Pain and guilt gripped her heart fiercely. If only she wasn't sick, if only she didn't need to go to the doctor so often and leave him with a woman she suspected didn't take good care of him.

"Soran," she called him, softly, and he turned to her. He didn't smile at her, as he used to do, and he didn't say a word. He stared at her with the seriousness of a grown man, waiting for her to speak.

"I'm sorry I have been absent," she said, tears in her voice.

He nodded. Just nodded. And kept eating. She couldn't believe her eyes, she couldn't believe his attitude; it felt as if he was gone and in his place was a stranger. There was a time when he would ask her how she was feeling, when he would give her that small, timid smile of his she loved so much, and assure her that he was fine, that he only wanted her to feel better.

But now he barely looked at her, he barely spoke, and his haunted expression scared her.

What had happened to her little boy?

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to update more often from now on. I just want to clarify something, just in case you don't remember, Dr. Kenta (or the policeman from chapter 3) knows Setsuna's name because he heard Feldt calling it out when Setsuna fell into the sea.

Anyways, don't forget to review!


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